Last Sacrifice Dimitri POV
by Muse-icfan756
Summary: Love, murder, jealousy and the ultimate sacrifice...Dimitri POV. All characters and plot belong to Richelle Mead.
1. Chapter 1

I sat on the bed, chewing my fingernails. Or what was left of them. I was under lockdown in my room. Three guardians in the room and about five outside. Maybe more. But I wouldn't know because I wasn't allowed out. Rose had been accused of murdering Queen Tatiana, and they'd taken her away. I'd tried to stop them; how could they take my Roza? She'd never do such a thing! But now they're all convinced I'm half Strigoi, so I'm on best behaviour. Abe Mazur managed to get into me somehow, and told me that Rose's trial date had been moved to two weeks later, which just made me even more anxious. Two weeks! I had two weeks to save the one I love. Under his arm was a thick book. I caught a glimpse of the cover and realised I'd read it. _The Count of Monte Cristo_. It was a good book. I wondered if Rose would like it. There I went again. I knew I couldn't love her. She shouldn't love me back, not after all the innocents I killed. Not after trying to kill her too. I couldn't love her, but she couldn't seem to grasp that. And, yes, I was grateful for all her hard work in saving me, but my allegiance was with Lissa. Because she did the deed. She used up so much spirit power in that moment. I wondered then if it had been similar bringing Rose back from the dead. I quickly chased away the dead Rose thoughts before they could haunt me. I was Dimitri Belikov. Nothing sacred me. Except that. I wondered what her cell was like. Mine had been pretty drab, with nothing but a bed. I enjoyed the solitary confinement. It gave me time to think. But I bet Rose was going crazy with boredom and claustrophobia. I wished I could help her. I sighed and my three guardians eyed me carefully. Flopping back onto the bed, I decided to take a little nap. I'd been so stressed out recently, and I wanted to get away from it all. However, that's not quite as easy as it looks.

My dreams were usually just random colours or memories which I would forget when I woke up in the morning. This particular dream, however, was crystal clear. It materialized into one of the court rooms and I found myself facing Adrian Ivashkov. He had his arms crossed and was wearing a knitted jumper and jeans. He was actually Rose's boyfriend, and I had to chase away a stupid pang of jealousy.

"Hey, Belikov." His tone made it clear that he didn't like talking to me.

"Hello, Adrian."

"So. I've go some important stuff to tell you."

"What exactly would I want to know about your life."

"Well, we both share one goal: get Rose out of prison and find the real murderer." I laughed.

"The way you put it makes it sound easy."

"Yeah, well. Abe visited me today with Lissa and Christian. Said he had a plan but wouldn't say what."

"Why not?"

"We think Rose is watching, and he wants Lissa to put up a mental shield." I didn't need to ask why. If Rose knew about this plan, she'd be so eager to jump in. And I was sure that she'd get hyped up and the guardians would notice something.

"Ok. Where do I come into this?"

"We're gonna bust you out on the morning of the funeral. Abe'll probably try and visit you tomorrow, and, if not, I'll visit your dreams." I could almost taste the disgust rolling off of him.

"Fine. Good night Adrian." He left me then, and the room dissolved back into my sleep.

When I awoke, however, I found myself bored. I had nothing really to do. No contact of any type. No nothing. Adrian, Christian and Lissa were going shopping for funeral clothes today and I wondered what they'd do. I reached for my battered Western novel on the bedside table and delved into the world of the cowboys, which was far more interesting than the anticipation of something that would probably not work.


	2. Chapter 2

Sometime in the afternoon, I heard arguing outside the door. I sat up, along with my guardians, and strained my ears to listen to it. I presumed, from the accent, that it was Abe arguing with my captors.

"I have something very important to deliver," he declared. "So I must see Mr. Belikov." I felt a pang of shame at the fact that my Guardian title had been dropped.

"Sorry, but we cannot let you in."

"I have official orders from guardian authorities to go inside. There were a few muttered comments and then the door opened to reveal Abe. He was wearing a beige suit with an aqua tie and cufflinks. His clothes always contrasted horrifically, but I felt scruffy in my T-shirt and jeans. It was too warm for a duster inside. Sadly. He sat on the bed next to me and talked very low, very slow and very quiet.

"Belikov, we're going to get you out of here. I trust Adrian has told you what he knows."

"Yes, Mr Mazur."

"Well, we've come up with an actual plan. We're going to get some guardian friends to bust you out of here. The Moroi will deal with the logistic stuff. All you've got to understand is that you'll need to be full of energy tomorrow, because you have a lot of work to do."

"What about Lissa and Christian? We don't want them getting into trouble."

"They'll stay innocent, don't you worry. Oh, and, here. You'll need these." He handed me a map, some notes and some cash. "Good luck. I'll being seeing you tomorrow." I slipped the items under my duvet so that the guardians wouldn't see, and then went back to my book. Luck was with me, and they swapped guardians about half an hour later. During that short moment, I jumped up and shoved the map into the bookcase. As I was doing so, the new guardians came in.

"What are you doing?" one of them asked.

"Getting some reading material," I replied, innocently.

"Your book's over there." He pointed towards it and I shook my head.

"I've finished t. I need something else." I pretended that I'd just got the map off of the shelf and settled down with it. Opening it out, I studied the area. It was of the states. I knew this map well, but I decided to keep it handy. I spread the notes out as well. One of them was on Honda cars. It explained the details, like their speed and horsepower, how much petrol would cost, and how they would work. Another note had a phone number on it. I found an envelope hidden among the notes containing a key, presumably to the garages. The final note explained exactly what I had to do. Eddie Castile and Mikhail Tanner were going to bust me out, and then I would have to help them bust Rose. Meanwhile, Abe was blowing up the statues during the funeral procession, where Lissa and Christian would look innocent, and the guardians would go there, leaving the jail pretty clear. Breaking Rose out should be simple. After than I had to drive to a town several hours away where I would meet an alchemist, whose phone number I already had. We would go to a small hotel in a village in West Virginia. I almost smiled. Rose was going to hate it there, but at least she'd be safe. At the bottom, more elegant handwriting read: _Good luck. Burn this after completion. Lissa xx_

I quickly shoved all the information in my pockets and searched for the town in West Virginia on my map. It seemed extremely far away, and it was barely marked as a village. Abe didn't go halfway, did he? I wondered how much the alchemists would have to do with this. Abe seemed pretty powerful, but he wasn't a royal. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do for the rest of the afternoon. If I was getting bored, I couldn't imagine how Rose would feel in her tiny cell. I spent the day daydreaming, unusual for me. Dinner was a drumstick and some chips. I figured the Court would have more healthy stuff, but obviously not. Still, I savoured it. The salty taste on my tongue. The crunch of the potato. Call me weird, but this food was still amazing to me. When I fell asleep again that night, Adrian met me again.

"Well, well, Belikov," he chuckled, wandering over with a swagger. "What have you gotten yourself into, 'Strigoi'?" He wasn't saying Strigoi to be mean, and I immediately understood. I could help Rose because people already accused me of everything, therefore it wouldn't matter. I was helping Lissa and that was all that counted. Although some small part of me still whispered _you're doing it for Rose. You have to save Rose._ I tried to shut it up. Rose was with Adrian, and I had to give it to him that he could be a nice guy. I'd seen them together and they'd seemed happy. Rose had even let Adrian bite her and I wondered what else had been going on. On second thoughts, I didn't want to know.

"It wasn't me. Abe just gave me orders, which I follow." His face turned serious. Was he even sober?

"You understand everything, right?"

"Of course."

"Good. I'm hoping this will go well. I have to stay off my vices tonight. I'll need my compulsion tomorrow." _Oh, I'm sure that'll be such a difficulty for you. _Quickly I shut up the mental voice, and I found myself fighting inside. _That's what Rose used to say._ Grrr. People may have thought I had exceptional self control, but really I was normal. Or at least, I thought so.

"Well, good luck Adrian."

"Thanks mate. Good luck to you. You'll need it."

**Wow, guys! Thanks for the amazing support you've given me already. It's really great for me to see that people like my stories!**


	3. Chapter 3

We sprinted there, and I could sense Adrian lagging behind.

"That's a lot of open ground to cover," Rose pointed out. Adrian was using spirit to make us appear blurry to others. However, we weren't sure if it was working. Nobody seemed to recognise us, and they were all in a panic anyway. There were many people running in our direction, and I could see a queue of cars lining up at the gate to get away already. Moroi were so afraid of the slightest little thing. "What's Lissa doing during all of this?"

"Lissa needs to stay innocent. She can't be linked to any part of the escape or explosion," I explained. No need to add that it was her idea in the first place. "She has to keep herself visible with the other royals. So does Christian. Those two would certainly be my first suspects if something blows up." I could imagine it; Lissa doing anything to help her friend and Christian setting the whole Court on fire. I'd seen some of his practices with Tasha, and he'd even set someone alight on behalf of Lissa in class.

"But the guardians won't suspect them once they realize that the blast wasn't caused by magic. And, hey, where _did _you guys get hold of C4? Military grade explosives are kind of extreme, even for you."

Before I could reply, three guardians were in front of us. Two of them I recognised as Court guardian. Tomas and Simon, actually. The third was a grad from Rose's class. I saw the slightest hesitation on Rose's part before she quickly took her out. Meredith had always been worse than Rose, so it was no surprise that their fight was over within seconds. I'd already taken down Tomas, and Mikhail and Eddie were finished with Simon. Eddie and Rose both wore grief on their faces at betraying their friend, but we pushed on.

"You did what you had to do," he murmured.


	4. Chapter 4

We sprinted there, and I could sense Adrian lagging behind.

"That's a lot of open ground to cover," Rose pointed out. Adrian was using spirit to make us appear blurry to others. However, we weren't sure if it was working. Nobody seemed to recognise us, and they were all in a panic anyway. There were many people running in our direction, and I could see a queue of cars lining up at the gate to get away already. Moroi were so afraid of the slightest little thing. "What's Lissa doing during all of this?"

"Lissa needs to stay innocent. She can't be linked to any part of the escape or explosion," I explained. No need to add that it was her idea in the first place. "She has to keep herself visible with the other royals. So does Christian. Those two would certainly be my first suspects if something blows up." I could imagine it; Lissa doing anything to help her friend and Christian setting the whole Court on fire. I'd seen some of his practices with Tasha, and he'd even set someone alight on behalf of Lissa in class.

"But the guardians won't suspect them once they realize that the blast wasn't caused by magic. And, hey, where _did _you guys get hold of C4? Military grade explosives are kind of extreme, even for you."

Before I could reply, three guardians were in front of us. Two of them I recognised as Court guardian. Tomas and Simon, actually. The third was a grad from Rose's class. I saw the slightest hesitation on Rose's part before she quickly took her out. Meredith had always been worse than Rose, so it was no surprise that their fight was over within seconds. I'd already taken down Tomas, and Mikhail and Eddie were finished with Simon. Eddie and Rose both wore grief on their faces at betraying their friend, but we pushed on.

"You did what you had to do," he murmured. "She'll be okay. Banged up, but okay."

"I hit her hard."

"The medics can deal with concussions. Hell, how many did we get in practice?" Eventually, we reached the garages. I weaved my way through the crowds of people, having memorised the map of the garages. At last, I spotted our car. A grey Honda Civic, perfect for blending in. There was a man there, silhouetted against it. He turned around and I saw the recognition on Rose's face.

"Abe!" He smiled at her and I had to restrain myself from growling.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. "You'll be on the list of suspects too!" He shrugged and I felt my palms tingle. Rose glanced my way warily.

"Vasilisa will make sure a few people at the palace swear they saw me there during suspicious times," he explained. "Besides, I couldn't leave without telling you goodbye, could I?" Rose shook her head wildly.

"Was this all part of your plan as being my lawyer? I don't recall explosive escapes being part of legal training."

"Well, I'm sure it wasn't part of Damon Tarus' legal training. I told you Rose, you will never face execution-or even a trial, if I can help it. Which, of course, I can." I remembered Rose had turned down Damon Tarus, an official lawyer, for her illustrious father." I twisted the keys between my fingers, leaning against the car impatiently.

"If I run, it's just going to make me seem that much more guilty."

"They already think you're guilty. You wasting away in that cell won't change that. This just ensures that we now have more time to do what we need to without your execution looming over us." He had a point.

"And what are you going to do, exactly?"

"Prove you're innocent," Adrian chimed in. "Or, well, that you didn't kill my aunt. I've known for a while that you aren't all that innocent." My eyes narrowed; I couldn't have people talking like that about her.

"What, are you guys going to destroy the evidence?"

"No. We have to find out who really did kill her," Eddie stated.

"You guys shouldn't be involved with that, now that I'm free. It's my problem. Isn't that why you got me out?"

"It's a problem you can't solve while you're at court," Abe added. "We need you gone and safe."

"Yeah, but I-" I cut her off.

"We're wasting time arguing," I grumbled, anxious to get going, or we'd never get out. I handed her a stake. "I know everything looks disorganized, but you'll be amazed at how quickly the guardians will restore order. And when they do, they're going to lock this place down." It was the truth. I'd seen the guardians work before. They were five times better than human security, even in situations like this.

"They don't need to. We're already going to have trouble getting out of Court. We'll be stopped-even if we get to the gate. There are going to be cars lined up for miles."

"Ah, well," Abe began, twiddling his fingers, "I have it on good authority that there's going to be a new 'gate' opening up soon over on the south side of the wall."

"Oh lord. You're the one that's been doling out C4." Well, who else? Not me. He frowned for once.

"You make it sound so easy. That stuff's hard to get a hold of." Did that matter? No, not at this moment. And that was when I decided.

"All of you: Rose needs to leave _now. _She's in danger. I'll drag her out if I have to." I would make good on that, and they knew it.

"You don't have t go with me," she snapped. She really _did_ hate me. "I'll take care of myself. No one else needs to get in trouble. Hand me the keys." I almost laughed at her open hand. I gave her a rueful glance.

"Rose, I can't really get in much more trouble. Someone has to be responsible for helping you and I'm the best choice." Eddie hugged her quickly.

"Go. We'll be in touch through Lissa." Mikhail gave her a hug too, and she moved to Adrian. He was grinning but I could tell that he hated her going off with me. I turned away as they embraced. Suddenly, there was a colossal bang and the sound of screams echoed in the air.

"There, you see?" Abe smiled. "A new gate. Perfect timing." Rose hugged him too. "Ah, my daughter. Eighteen, and already you've been accused of murder, aided felons and acquired a death count higher than most guardians will ever see." He was a smart man and had every right to be proud of her, but we need to get moving. Couldn't they see that?

"Goodbye, old man," she laughed. "And thanks." Finally, she jumped into the car and we sped off towards the 'gate'. I could sense that Rose wanted the wheel, but there was no way I was giving it up now. Especially as she had no idea where we were going. We burst through the hole in the wall and raced towards the road, bumping up and down.

"Why is our getaway car a Civic?" she asked. "It's not really great for off-roading."

I explained the reason- about it being common and her eyes widened when she realised we were going to abandon it. "Abandon- Look, now that we're out of there, I want you to know I mean it; you don't have to come with me. I appreciate your help in the escape. Really. But hanging out with me won't do you any favours. They'll be hunting for me more than you. If you take off, you can live somewhere among humans and not be treated like a lab animal. You might even be able to slink back to Court. Tasha would put up a fight for you." It was true. Tasha and I had been good friends since, well, for ever. I took a while to answer, and put my words right without offending her. Eventually, I said, "I'm not leaving you. None of your Rose-logic arguments are going to work. And if you try to get away, I'll just find you."

"But why? I don't want you with me."

"It doesn't matter what you want. Or what I want. Lissa asked me to protect you."

"Hey, I don't need anyone to-"

"And, I meant what I said to her. I swore I'd serve her and help her for the rest of my life, anything she asks. If she wants me to be your bodyguard, that's what I'll be." I turned to look at her now. "There's no way you're getting rid of me anytime soon."


	5. Chapter 5

She was trying to get rid of me. Even though I'd told her not to, she was still trying to get rid of me. Which was a bit of a stupid idea considering I was the one with the wheel. I could tell by the way that her beautiful eyes narrowed and her lips pursed that she was planning something. If it had been a less serious situation I would've laughed at her intense expression. But today I was proud that she was thinking so well, although I did have a mind to tell her to focus on something worthwhile. She should know me by now. We'd been on the road for about an hour and she was still sitting completely still. I wondered what her plan would've been.

"I know what you're thinking," I murmured.

"Huh?" She glanced over, perplexed. I almost smiled. Almost.

"And it won't work. You're planning to get away from me, probably when we eventually stop for gas. You're thinking that maybe you'll have a chance to run off then." She sighed and I knew I'd hit the mark. She _was_ going to run away. Silly girl. Spreading her arms about, she said,

"This is a waste of time."

"Oh? You have better things to do than flee the people who want to lock you up and execute you? Please don't tell me again that this is too dangerous for me." I would've added, I've been in more dangerous situations than you, but really, I probably hadn't. She glared at me.

"It isn't just about you. Running away shouldn't be my only concern. I should be helping clear my name, not hiding in whatever remote place you're undoubtedly taking me to. The answers are at Court."

"And you have lots of friends at Court who will be working on that. It'll be easier on them if they know you're safe."

"What I want to know is why no one told me about this-or, I mean, why Lissa didn't. Why'd she hide it? Don't you think I would've been more helpful if I'd been ready?"

"We did the fighting, not you. We were afraid if you knew, you might give away something was up."

"I never would've told!" She was outraged.

"Not intentionally, no. But if you were tense or anxious...well, your guards can pick up on those kind of things."

"Well, now that we're out, can you tell me where we're going? Was I right? Is it some crazy remote place?" Of course you're right, Roza. Where else would Abe make me take you? I bit my lip because, if I told her, she probably would've run off in the other direction. She glared again. "I hate not being in the loop." I smiled. Time to introduce something I call, the Dimitri method.

"Well, I have my own personal theory that the more you don't know, the more your curiosity is likely to make sure you stick around with me." She sighed.

"That's ridiculous. When the hell did things get so out of control? When did you guys start becoming the masterminds? I'm the one who comes up with the wacky, impossible plans. I'm supposed to be the general here. Now I'm barely a lieutenant." I was about to say that _she_ could be the comrade, when I caught suspicious movement in the rear-view mirror. I wouldn't have been able to pick it out if it hadn't been tailing us exactly. I swore and sped up so that the trees and signs along the side of the road were just blurs. Rose gave me an inquiring look.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"We have a tail," I explained. "I didn't think it would happen this soon."

"Are you sure?" Yep. Definitely sure. Now that I thought about it, I could almost make out Hans behind the wheel...I swore again, hoping Rose didn't understand my Russian, and crossed into the next lane without indicating. Rose grabbed the dashboard as her eyes widened with shock, and the air was filled with car horns tooting around us. The Court's guardians followed suit. I swerved up the exit towards Harrisburg, hoping that there would be an even busier road for us to get lost in. Rose shrank down in her chair.

"The Court must've gotten the word out pretty fast. They had someone watching the interstates."

"Maybe we should've taken the back roads." No. Not a good idea. I shook my head without taking my eyes off the road.

"Too slow. None of it would've been an issue once we switched cars, but they found us too soon. We'll have to get a new one here. This is the biggest city we'll hit before the Maryland border."

"What exactly is your plan to get a new car?" I understood why she was anxious. I didn't really have a plan at all. I avoided her question and began something much more important.

"Listen carefully. It is very, _very_ important that you do exactly as I say. No improvising. No arguing. There are guardians in that car. And by now, they've alerted every other guardian around here-possibly even the human police."

"Wouldn't the police catching create a few problems?"

"The Alchemists would sort it out and make sure we get back to the Moroi."I could see her thinking as we neared the city. "No matter what you think of the choices everyone's been making for you, no matter how unhappy you are with this situation, you know-I know you do- that I've never failed you when our lives were at stake. You trusted me in the past. Trust me now." And God, I hope she trusted me. If she didn't, she'd probably use this as her excuse to run off. Maybe she'd get caught, who knows what'd happen then? Abe would kill me for one.

"Okay. I'll do whatever you say. Just remember not to talk down to me. I'm not your student anymore. I'm your equal now." I was surprised. Had I not treated her like my equal?

"You've always been my equal, Roza." Dammit. The nickname slipped out. She didn't have time to respond before I said, "There. Do you see that movie theatre sign?" I pointed to the flashing lights ahead of us, signalling it was Westland Cinema.

"Yes."

"That's where we're going to meet." She looked nervous about us splitting up, and really, I was too. "If I'm not there in half an hour, you call this number and go without me." I handed her the piece of paper with the Alchemist's phone number on it.

"What do you mean if you're not-ah!" I swerved onto a different road and looked back on our pursuers. The dangerous move had been too fast for them, and they'd whizzed past us onto the freeway. This would buy us some time. I caught sight of a mall ahead and dove into one of the entrances. I pulled into a spot and jumped out of the car, storming towards the entrance. Rose almost had to run to keep up with my big strides.

"Here's where we split up," I announced. "Move fast but don't run when you're inside. Don't attract attention. Blend in. Wind through it for a little bit; then get out through any exit but this one. Walk out near a group of humans and head for the theatre. Go!" I pushed her towards the escalator and took the ground floor. My height would definitely give me away if there were guardians in here, so I tried to head for a shop that men might go to. Over on the opposite side, I spotted a gadget shop. I browsed in there, looking at worthless robots and knickknacks before exiting. There was an exit over there. It was then that I realised a fault in the plan. Neither Rose nor I had watches. I'd have to estimate time. I headed for a car dealer which was just closing, and snuck inside and waited behind a car for the man at the desk to take his coffee inside the office. I selected a Honda Accord; quite fast and strong and very popular amongst humans. Quickly I tried to remember the little mechanics I knew. I moved some wires about and heard an engine start. I jumped up and slid into the car. It worked beautifully. I would've liked to make a dramatic exit, but that would give hints everywhere. Too obvious. I drove out between the double doors where I entered the dealer and onto the road. I circled for a minute or two, and then pulled up by the curb of the theatre. I glanced around and tried to see her, when I found her. She was standing near the exit. She bound up her hair but it had fallen out again. Her sleeve was ripped. Obviously there _had_ been guardians around. Her hand was fingering her pocket and she was scanning the area.

"Rose!" I called, waving at her. She hurried and slammed the door. Before she'd belted up, I hit the gas, hoping to get away as fast as possible. The guardians would probably get stolen car details from the dealer, so we'd have to get to our next stop quickly. I didn't know if we could make it in time. I drove just over the speed limit, trying to avoid suspicious cars and speed cameras. All the while, I had to keep checking behind us. No. Nothing yet. Finally, Rose asked,

"Is there anyone behind us?"

"It doesn't look like it. It'll take them a while to figure out which car we're in." She glanced down.

"Did you hotwire this car?" Then she began again, "Did you _steal_ this car?"

"You have an interesting set of morals. Breaking out of jail is okay. But steal a car, and you sound totally outraged." She sighed and relaxed into the seat.

"I'm just more surprised than outraged. I was afraid...well, for a moment there I thought you weren't coming. That they'd caught you or something."

"No. Most of my time was spent sneaking out and finding a suitable car." There was silence for a few more minutes, and I waited for her to break it. I knew she would.

"You didn't ask what happened to me."

"Don't need to. You're here. That's what counts."

"I got in a fight."

"I can tell. Your sleeve is ripped." She looked down and fingered the material.

"Don't you want to know anything about the fight?"

"I already know. You took down your enemy. You did it fast and you did it well. Because you're just that good." She smiled.

"Okay. So what now, General? Don't you think they'll scan reports of stolen cars and get our license plate number?"

"Likely. But by then, we'll have a new car- one they won't have any clue about." She frowned.

"How are you pulling that off?"

"We're meeting someone in a few hours."

"Damn it. I _really_ hate being the last one to know about everything." We didn't speak too much for the next few hours of our journey, when we eventually arrived in Roanoke, Virginia. I pulled off into a business centre and found the McDonalds I wanted. Rose lit up. "I don't suppose that this is a food break?"

"This is where we catch our next ride." I circled the parking lot, scanning the cars and few people to find what I wanted. I spotted a tan SUV with a woman standing with her back to us, and presumed it was who I was looking for. Rose seemed to recognise her, and her eyes widened. I pulled in next to her and we hopped out.

"Sydney?" Rose asked, shocked.

"Hey, Rose," Sydney said. A McDonalds bag was dangling for her finger and she smiled. "Figured you'd be hungry."


	6. Chapter 6

**I do not own this story. This plot belongs completely to Richelle Mead, author of the Vampire Academy series. I have just created my own take on it.**

This Alchemist, Sydney, had our new car. It was from Louisiana. Brilliant. Nobody would ever think we drove our current car all the way over there. Rose had something to say about it though.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed. "Is this daring escape being sponsored by Honda?" Nobody replied, although it reminded me of the adverts before all the John Wayne films I'd watched on TV. She tried another question, "Are we going to New Orleans?" I presumed that this was Sydney's allocated area. We were in the car now and I realised Sydney was a very careful driver. This was going to be boring next to our Formula One PC Game recreation. She reversed out of the parking area slowly.

"No," she replied. "We're going to West Virginia." Rose gave me a sharp look.

"I assume by 'West Virginia,' you actually mean 'Hawaii,' or some place equally exciting." Being Rose, she didn't appreciate the beauty of the area. Although I had to admit, Hawaii did sound pretty appealing. Sydney frowned.

"Honestly, I think you're better off avoiding excitement right now. And West Virginia's actually really pretty."

"Why are you helping us?" Sydney grimaced.

"Why do you think?"

"Abe." Abe Mazur, or so I'd heard, was a very ingenious man. He wasn't even from royal bloodlines but could manipulate anything and anyone. With Janine Hathaway as her mother and Abe as her father, it was no wonder Rose was notorious for her crazy plans. It seemed that Sydney owed something to Abe.

"I'm beginning to wonder if New Orleans was worth it," she sighed. This gave me more clues in this never ending puzzle. I tried to keep my face calm as I realised that Abe must've done something pretty big to get her back home. She seemed extremely loyal to people she believed were 'creatures of the night'.

"Okay. So why are we going to Vest Virginia?" Rose was starting an interrogation now. Sydney was about to explain but I knew Rose better. If she knew what we were up to, she would find some way out of it.

"Not yet," I interrupted. I couldn't risk losing her out there. She glared at me, her brows lowered over her light brown eyes.

"I am so sick of this!" Her outburst seemed to shock Sydney, but I was prepared for it. "We've been on the run for six hours now, and I still don't know all the details. I get that we're staying away from the guardians, but are we seriously going to West Virginia? Are we going to make some cabin our base of operation? Like, one on the side of a mountain that doesn't have plumbing?"

Again, Sydney gave an exasperated sigh. Even in the few weeks she'd known her in Russia, she'd realised that Rose was a force to be reckoned with, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it came to academic subjects. "Do you actually know anything _about_ West Virginia?" Rose, naturally, ignored her.

"You know we've been set up, right? We didn't really do anything. They say I killed the queen, but-" Sydney cut her off.

"I know. I've heard all about it. All the Alchemists know about it. You two are at the top of our most wanted list." Huh. We even beat Victor Dashkov. The silence was awkward, and I knew Rose and I both shared the same urge to make at least a small conversation to break it up. Tension radiated off of Sydney, and I believed that was mainly due to me. Sydney was used to Rose, but I could easily imagine myself towering over her. The thought was quite intimidating, so I tried to appear as calm and easy-going as possible.

"I didn't do it." Rose's claim broke the silence, but I still believed that Sydney was sceptical.

"You should eat. Your food's getting cold. We've got a little over three hours to go and won't be stopping except for gas." At this, Rose ripped open the bag. The smell of melted cheese and salty chips wafted through the air and it had never smelt so good. She handed me a cheeseburger.

"You want one? Gotta keep up your strength." I took it tentatively and opened up the wrapping onto my lap, taking in the shiny surface of the bun and the tomato sauce leaking out of the side. It wasn't the best thing in the world, but in this moment, it was pretty close. She also gave me a few chips, which I regarded as a miracle. It was so delicious and I could tell that Rose was enjoying hers too.

By my feet were two drawstring bags. I picked the one closest to me. Just my luck. I'd picked the girls one.

"I think this is for you," I pointed out, handing it to Rose.

"Shorts, shirts, and a dress. I can't fight in these. I need jeans." I could tell that she liked the clothes, but they were very impractical. The only fighting clothes she wore were what she was already wearing, and that was wearing out quickly.

"That's gratitude for you," Sydney smiled. "This happened kind of fast. There was only so much I could put together." Meanwhile, I'd been unpacking my own bag: some denim, a couple of T-shirts and, oh my goodness-

"A duster?" Rose exclaimed. I could feel my face light up with joy. "You managed to get him a duster, but you couldn't find me a pair of jeans?" I almost laughed. Almost.

"Abe said it was essential." Good old Abe. "Besides, if all goes like it's supposed to, you won't be doing any fighting." I could almost feel her frown, and then her face went blank. Sydney shot me a worried look.

"She's in Lissa's head," I explained.

"She's what?" This was a completely new concept to her.

"The bond that Rose shares with Princess Dragomir allows her to access her mind completely. So she's not actually here; she's there."

"That's creepy." I wondered what she was seeing. We'd been on the road for quite a while, but I wouldn't be surprised if the guardians were doing interrogations. It sounded quite likely. I turned up the radio and rested my head against the window, my fingers clutching the stake in my lap. A new song that I hadn't heard before came on. I'd never heard it and it wasn't my usual style, but I instantly connected with it. I believe it was called 'Just the Way You Are' by Bruno Mars. I think. I couldn't help but look back at Rose throughout the song. Even in Lissa's head she looked peaceful as if she were in a deep sleep and a very happy dream. The song spun round my head.

_Her eyes, her eyes make the stars look like they're not shining._

_Her hair, her hair falls perfectly without her trying. _

_She's so beautiful and I tell her every day._

The words fit perfectly, as if they were written especially for us and as if I would be allowed to just put my arms around her and never let go of that moment.

_I know, I know when I compliment her she won't believe me._

_And its so, its so sad to think that she don't see what I see._

_But every time she asks me do I look okay, I'll say..._

_When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change_

'_Cause you're amazing, just the way you are._

_And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while_

'_Cause you're amazing, just the way you are._

The song continued like this, with the singer describing somebody he loved. Except his love life didn't seem as tricky as mine. He didn't know just how easy he had it.

When we eventually arrived in West Virginia it was extremely dark, preventing me from seeing anything, which was frustrating as I'd always wanted to see if it was as beautiful as the photos say. We were staying in a tiny little village barely accessible. I doubted it was even big enough to be put on a map. The diner was called DINER and the motel was called MOTEL. Hmm. Simple. We checked in under fake names on the credit cards that Sydney provided, and we got two rooms. One for Sydney alone, and one for Rose and I. The place was a bit grungy looking.

"We're not all staying together?" Rose asked, eyeing the doors warily.

"Hey, if you guys get caught, I don't want to be anywhere near you," Sydney said. "I'll still be nearby though. We'll talk in the morning." Rose shifted her gaze to me.

"We're sharing a room?" My heart was thumping in my chest and I quickly tried to slow it. Sydney shrugged.

"All the better to defend yourselves." She exited into her own room and left us standing there in the hallway. We went into the room and I locked the door behind us. Settling into the wooden chair in the corner I eyed the room carefully. Rose perched on the end of the bed.

"What now?" she wondered.

"Now we wait," I answered.

"For what?"

"For Lissa and the others to clear your name and find out who killed the queen." She continued to watch me, obviously expecting something more. A few seconds passed and I could see Rose fidgeting. This was going to be difficult.

"What are _we_ going to do? How are we going to help them?"

"We told you earlier: You can hardly go looking for clues at Court. You need to stay away. You need to stay safe."

She gaped and spread her arms out. "What, and this is it? This is where you're stashing me? I thought...I thought there was something here. Something to help." I tried to keep calm, although she had to know that this was bugging me too. Who knew how long we'd have to stay in this awful place.

"It _is_ helping. Sydney and Abe researched this place and decided it was out of the way enough to avoid detection." She jumped up.

"Okay, comrade. There's one serious problem here with your logic. You guys keep acting like having me out of the way is _helping_."

"What's a serious problem is us repeating this conversation over and over. The answers to who murdered Tatiana are at Court and that's where your friends are. They'll figure this out." Wasn't entirely sure of that, but I had to make sure she wouldn't escape.

"I didn't just get in a high-speed chase and jump state lines to hole up in some crappy motel! How long are you planning on 'staying out of the way' here?" I crossed my arms and the lines on my forehead deepened.

"As long as it takes. We have the funds to stay here indefinitely."

"I probably have enough spare change in my pocket to stay here indefinitely! But it's not happening. I have to do something. I won't just take the easy way out and sit around." So I tried to muster up the most Zen sentence I could to distract her.

"Surviving isn't as easy as you think." She groaned.

"Oh God. You've been hanging out with Abe, haven't you? You know, when you were a Strigoi, you told me to stay away from him. Maybe you should take your own advice." I flinched. I _had_ said that, but I was under the control of the Strigoi inside me. All the anger suddenly fell off her face and changed into remorse. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"We're done discussing this. Lissa says we're staying here, so we're staying here."

"That's why you're doing this? Because Lissa told you to?"

"Of course. I swore I'd serve and help her." Oops. _That was idiotic, Dimka._ The voice sounded strangely like Yeva's and I shook it off.

"Forget it!" Rose snapped. "I am _not_ staying here." She should've known better. She made it to the door and was fiddling with the lock when I caught her. I pressed her against the wall and she struggled, trying to break free.

"You _are_ staying here, whether you like it or not." She fell slightly limp and then kneed me in the stomach. My eyes widened as the pain hit me and my fists let go. Bad move. I reached out and flung her against the bed, pinning her down with my body weight. "Stop it. Be reasonable for once. You can't get past me." She continued to struggle.

"I'm not the one being unreasonable. You're the one caught up in some noble promise that makes no sense. And I know you don't like to sit out of the action any more than I do. Help me. Help me find the murderer and do something useful." Was my promise stupid? It made sense to me.

"I don't like sitting around, but I also don't like rushing into impossible situations."

"Impossible situations are our speciality." She lashed out and rolled over before I pinned her again. We were so close to each other, and I was hyperaware of her presence. I ignored my feeling s and continued on with the fight.

"One day. You can't even wait one day?"

"Maybe if we'd gone to a nicer hotel. With cable."

"This is no times for jokes, Rose."

"Then let me do something. Anything."

"I. Can't." I knew that my desperation was leaking out in my voice and she would realise it. I braced myself for another attack as she studied my face. I was prepared for a backlash of Rose's roundabout logic. But I don't think anything could've prepared me for what happened next. She kissed me.

It was just the same as it had always been. That same feeling that we were connected and at one with each other. I couldn't help myself. I was losing my grip on her. And that was when her fist struck out to my jaw. I was so shocked that I forgot to move. It was a hard punch and I would end up with and interesting bruise there. Meanwhile, Rose had shoved me off and I thumped to the floor. I scrambled up as she sprinted over and slammed the door shut behind her. Trying not to skid, I threw open the door again, and ran straight into the deserted washing cart. I could see her flying down the stairs at the end of the corridor now. I cried out unthinkingly and shoved it out of my way, down the opposite side of the corridor. There was a feminine shout from downstairs and I saw the door swinging as I raced towards it. The clerk at the desk yelled at me to stop but I breezed past, focusing only on finding Rose. I found myself racing a road and a forest. There was no way she would ever make it back alone. It was up to me now.


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own Vampire Academy.**

I had to think fast before she got too far ahead of me. If I was Rose, where would I go? Pondering that decision, I came to the conclusion that Rose would follow the road. But, being Rose, she knew that I would think she would go there. It may sound like a piece of Rose-logic, but it made sense to me, so I shot off into the forest to find her. It was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing. The wind ruffled my hair and it was quite a chilly breeze. I sprinted after her, knowing that my long strides always outrun her. After about ten minutes, I glanced up into the sky. It was clear and there was a brilliant moon staring down at me. I pinpointed the correct constellation, the Big Dipper, and followed the trail of stars to the end. I looked over at the North, which didn't look very promising, but neither did any other direction. All around me, bugs hummed and sung. I could feel pine needles brushing against my duster and the scattered stars looked perfectly placed. I decided to head north in the hopes that I'd somehow find Rose in a random food shop several miles away. I continued jogging along and wondered what she could possibly be doing. Running off was _not_ going to help her. Surely she would realise that. As I wound my way through the trees, I felt a sudden wistful longing for my hometown of Baia. Russia was such a wonderful place. The language, the beautiful domes. And, although it sounds stupid coming from a 24 year old guardian, I missed my family. Especially my mother. I imagined the scent of bread filling the house and took pleasure in it. I even missed my sisters, although I still resented them for forcing me to play dolls. I was only four; I didn't know better.

I still watched where I was going, but I let my mind wander to the situation back at Court. It had been ages since we'd left. Were they being interrogated? Had they already done that? If I was interrogating that lot, I'd have a difficult job on my hands. The guardians would surely have realised it was caused by C4, and not Christian or Tasha, but still. They were huge suspects in _my_ eyes. I hoped Tasha was okay. We'd been friends forever and it would be horrible to see anything bad happen to her. Not that I'd actually _see_ it. By the looks of things, the next six months of my life will be spent trying to find Rose. If we even live that long. I doubted that Lissa would even dare to use compulsion on the guardians. We have a strong resistance to it and, even though hers is extremely powerful, I didn't believe she'd be able to take on many at a time. Only Moroi and humans were that weak. Besides, compulsion could be detected by many people.

My mind was whirring so much that I ended up getting distracted. Sometimes I brushed past something that looked like a silhouette, but turned out to be a tree. And I couldn't stop thinking about the kiss. It was awful of me, and my inner voice chastised me. I tried to shake it out of my head, but I just couldn't. The last time we'd kissed, I'd been a Strigoi. I dreaded even thinking about those times, and they weren't really considered life experiences. As I'd said to Rose, everything around you seems more alive. And, although it was a simple statement, her reply was so wise: yeah, but you're dead. I hadn't realised that Strigoi had a heart beat, but I guess many people didn't go through what I did. So, the time before that had been a week before her birthday in late March. Over three months ago. How awful. I hadn't realised quite how much I'd missed her, but I knew it was wrong. She was just using it as a technique. For all I knew, she'd been using it on Strigoi for the past few months. I couldn't have her. Because she was with Adrian. And because I didn't deserve her. She couldn't waste her life with somebody like me. If she was ever to get her name cleared, which would hopefully happen sometime soon, she might possibly be pardoned with a guardian status to some low-ranking Moroi. She couldn't waste her life with stupid old me then. I set my heart on it. I wouldn't allow her to. Ever. She would meet somebody, or maybe she already had, that would be able to care for her and be strong enough to go through things without making a total fool out of themselves like I do. Maybe she'd found that person in Adrian. All I'd heard was his reputation, and I should know well enough not to listen to that too much. Although it was his own fault. I wonder what Abe and Janine thought of Adrian. Of course, Janine Hathaway was invincible and a force to be reckoned with. Everybody knew that. But Abe Mazur was what one might call scary. Intimidating, even though he was half a foot shorter than me. His reputation definitely served him well, at least, in his point of view. Although that might not necessarily be a good thing.

Suddenly, I caught a figure. I almost didn't look back, just in case I humiliated myself with yet another tree. However, this figure had gorgeous dark hair falling in waves to her mid-back. I would recognise her anywhere, even from behind. _Especially_ from behind. Silently, I crept around her to get a better view. Her face was completely blank and her eyes were unblinking. She was in Lissa's head. A memory flashed into my head, and I shoved it away just as quickly. But I still saw it. I remembered grabbing Lissa's face roughly and talking to Rose through her eyes. She was so exposed then. It was almost as if I could see her. I ignored it and inhaled a silent breath. Sneaking back three steps, I ran.

I hurtled into her and knocked her to the floor. She let out an,

"Oomph!" and I pinned her down against the earth. I could smell the leaves which smelt almost damp, even in the height of summer. I spoke into her ear softly.

"You should have just hidden in town. It would have been the last place I looked. Instead I knew exactly where you'd go," I murmured. It was almost funny at how uncertain I'd been and now I was acting all confident.

"Whatever. Don't act so smart," she growled through gritted teeth. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. "You made a lucky guess, that's all." Yes, I had, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I still held a small fragment of dignity which I would cling to with my life.

"I don't need luck, Roza. I'll always find you. So really, it's up to you how difficult you want this situation to be. We can do this over and over or you can do the reasonable thing and just stay put with Sydney and me."

"It's not reasonable! It's wasteful." I could see her point, but I continued on. I wasn't going to let her run off again.

"How many times do I have to explain the logic behind what we're doing?"

"Until you give up." I didn't doubt that she would continue forever. She tried to shove me off, but my size and strength overpowered her. I pulled her up and restrained her, pinning her arms behind her back. I had won. I began dragging her back to the hotel. I realised that I hadn't actually been running that far. I'd just gone around in circles. She dug her feet into the ground and I realised this would be and endless struggle. "I am _not_ letting you and Sydney risk getting in trouble with me. I'll take care of myself, so just let me go!" Oh, I'm sure you will. She stuck out her leg and curled it around a tree trunk. I sighed in exasperation. How long would this go on? Groaning, I shifted to grab her. She stepped forward but I barely had to move to catch her.

"Rose," I began. "You can't win."

"How's your face feeling?" she asked snarkily. It was quite painful, actually. I couldn't believe I'd fallen for that! I continued to drag her and grimaced in the dark.

"I'm seconds away from just tossing you over my shoulder." And I would make good on my promise.

"I'd like to see you try." Really? Are you sure? Let's make an arrangement.

"How do you think Lissa would feel if you got killed? Can you imagine what it would do to her if she lost you?" I'd heard stories about spirit users going crazy when they lost their bond mate.

"Have a little faith, comrade. I won't get killed. I'll stay alive." Not what I'd been hoping for. I was almost out of persuasion methods. I guess I could always kiss her...

"There are other ways to help her than whatever insanity you're thinking of." I was glad for Lissa's sake that the bond was only one way. I was pretty sure that Rose's mind was messed up to a point of no return. Suddenly, she fell slack in my arms. I stumbled in shock and caught her. "What's wrong?" It was odd, even for Rose, to spontaneously collapse like that. She stared out into the forest and I hope spirit wasn't dong something awful to her mind. The last time I'd seen that, it had been ridiculous.

"You're right," she breathed.

"Right about...?" It was absurd, but at the moment I felt like a normal human guy. I had no idea what the hell she was going on about, and she'd only said two words. Twenty four suddenly seemed very young.

"Rushing back to Court won't help Lissa." I wanted to throw my hands up in the air, when I realised she was going to say more. I waited for the catch. "I'll go back to the motel with you, and I won't go running off to Court. But I'm not going to sit around and do nothing. I _am_ going to do something for Lissa- and you and Sydney are going to help me." I didn't like the finalising noted in her voice, but we began the trek back to the motel underneath the stars.

**Sorry it's a bit short. Most of this chapter is in Lissa's head, so I had to do some rambling. Check my profile for updates, and please review! **


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice. **

Rose filled me in on the issue back at Court as we jogged to the motel.

"They what?" I shrieked, as she told me they'd revealed about _us_. I tried to regain my calm, guardian mask, as she was staring at me in shock. "Sorry. Just got caught off guard."

"They had no other choice. Unless you _want_ to be labelled Strigoi for the rest of your life," she told me slyly. I shook my head and sighed. I was in for _even more_ trouble when we got back, if that was even possible. The motel soon came into sight through the trees, more so because of the flashing red and blue lights in the parking lot. Plenty of people, more than I thought lived in this town, were standing outside, waiting to see the non-existent crime.

"The whole town turned out," Rose said, surprised.

"You just had to say something to the desk clerk, didn't you?" I sighed. Typical Rose.

"I thought it would slow you down." We peered around the side of the building we were hidden behind to see what was going on.

"It's going to slow us down now." As I took in my surroundings, I noticed something useful. "Sydney's car is gone. That's something, at least."

"Is it? We just lost our ride!"

"She wouldn't leave us, but she was smart enough to get out before the police came knocking on her door." At least there was _someone_ we could rely on. I turned and checked out the road. Where would she go? "Come on. She has to be close, and there's a good chance that the police might actually start searching around if they thought some defenceless girl was being chased down." She smirked at my use of defenceless. She wasn't defenceless and everybody knew it.

We started walking out of town, keeping to the shadows so we wouldn't attract attention. Rose was silent the whole journey, which was only half a mile. About ten minutes or so. The air was cool and I relished it. Eventually we saw a CR-V pulled off the road. Rose stalked up and rapped on the window, with me on her heels. Sydney jumped inside the car. The window rolled down and she managed to look very angry, for a human.

"What did you do?" she exclaimed. "Never mind. Don't bother. Just get in." Obviously, she knew Rose. We slipped inside the car and travelled a few miles down a dimly lit road before anybody spoke again. Sydney turned off the engine and twisted around to face Rose.

"You ran, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I got this-" Rose began, already making excuses for herself. That was probably why she was so silent. Planning something, no doubt. Sydney held up a hand and interrupted her.

"No, don't. Not yet. I wish you could've pulled off your daring escape without attracting the authorities."

"Me too," I butted in, trying to prove how annoyed I really was. Rose scowled.

"Hey, I came back, didn't I?" she defended herself. I raised an eyebrow. I wouldn't say 'came back' would be my choice of words. I was thinking more along the lines of 'dragged back'. "And now I know what we have to do to help Lissa."

"What we have to do," Sydney said, "is find a safe place to stay."

"Just go back to civilisation and pick a hotel. One with room service. We can make that our base of operation while we work on the next plan."

"We researched that town specifically! We can't go to some random place-at least not nearby. I doubt they took down my plates, but they could put out a call to look for this type of car. If they've got that and our descriptions, and it gets to the state police, it'll get to the Alchemists and it'll-" she was getting worked up. I knew how anxious she was, because I was worried too. What if we couldn't survive this? _Killed on sight. _ I also knew just how frustrating Rose could be when she didn't take anything seriously. I put my hand on her arm.

"Calm down," I murmured, trying to soothe her. "We don't know that any of that's going to happen. Why don't you just call Abe?"

"Yeah. That's exactly what I want. To tell him I messed up the plan in less than twenty-four hours." Her voice was wry. I didn't think she liked me much.

"Well," Rose began, for the second time, "if it makes you feel any better, the plan's about to change anyway-"

"Be quiet! Both of you. I need to think." I glanced at Rose who looked astonished at lovely Sydney yelling at someone. Silently, I wished she'd just tell us the plan already. How was she going to help Lissa? What could I do, if necessary, to help her?

Sydney flipped on the light and pulled out a map. She frowned for a moment, sighed dramatically, then turned off the light. Entering _Altswood, West Virginia_ into the GPS, she started the car. Rose, always the inquisitive one, asked, "What's in Altswood?"

"Nothing," Sydney replied. "But it's the closest place to where we're going that the GPS can find." Hmmm. Remote. Where could we be going? I couldn't stand the tension any longer, so I took this opportunity to turn towards Rose.

"So what's going on with Lissa?" I wondered. "What's this great plan of yours?" I glanced at Sydney. "Rose says there's something important we have to do."

"So I gathered," she mumbled. Rose took a breath, steadied herself, and then revealed what she knew.

"So, it, um, turns out that Lissa has a brother or sister. And I think we should find them." For once in my life, my mind was blank. Sydney gasped at this new information, and I was stunned. Lissa had a sibling? It didn't make sense. I thought Andre was dead. Once I regained my senses, I was about to protest when Rose produced a note explaining it, supposedly signed b Tatiana, the late Moroi Queen.

"You have no proof Tatiana wrote the note," I pointed out.

"The Alchemists have no record of another Dragomir," Sydney added.

"I don't really see why Tatiana's ghost would want to deceive me," Rose argued. "And the Alchemists aren't all-knowing. The note says this is a pretty heavily guarded secret from the Moroi-it makes sense it would be secret from the Alchemists too."

"You've said before that's it's not always clear what the ghosts say," I informed her, remembering past experiences. Although, she had always got it right. "Maybe you misread her."

"I don't know...I think she did write this note. My gut says she did. You know it's been right before. Can you trust me on this?" Her narrowed eyes were enough to pin me to my seat and I knew she was right. Her gut was always right. I nodded slowly.

"But if we're going to be searching for this alleged sibling, we'd be going against Lissa's directions to stay put."

"You believe that note?" Sydney exclaimed. "You're _considering_ listening to it?" Anger briefly lit up Rose's face and she quickly covered it. I wondered what she was mad about this time.

"Technically, yes," Rose told her. "But if we could actually prove she wasn't the last in her family, it would help her a lot. We can't ignore the chance, and if you manage to keep me out of trouble while we do it then there shouldn't be a problem." Except for keeping her out of trouble. But, of course, Rose wouldn't think of it as trouble. In her mind it was a genius plan.

"Okay," I sighed, agreeing with her. She'd get her way eventually. So this was it. We were going to find Lissa's sibling. "But where do we start? You have no other clues, aside from a mysterious note."

"Obviously, this is a secret. A big one. One people have apparently wanted to cover up-enought that they'd try to steal records about it and keep the Dragomirs out of power. You could look into that case some more."

"Whoa, hey. How was I not even part of this decision process?" Sydney asked. "Maybe breaking Lissa's orders is no big deal for you two, but _I'd_ be going against Abe. He might not be so lenient."

"I'll pull in a daughterly favour. Besides, the old man _loves_ secrets. He'd be into this, believe me. And you've already found the biggest clue of all. I mean, if Eric was giving money to some anonymous person, then why wouldn't it be for his secret mistress and her child?"

"Anonymous being the key word. If you're theory's right-and it's kind of a leap-we still have no idea who this mistress is. The stolen documents didn't say."

"Are there any records that tie into the stolen ones? Or could you investigate the bank he was sending the money into?"

"You really have no idea how 'researching records' works, do you? It's not that easy. It could take a while."

"Well...I guess that's why it's good we're going somewhere, um, secure, right?"

"Secure..." Sydney shook her head. "Well, we'll see. I hope I'm not doing something stupid." The conversation ended there, and her words hung ominously in the air. I stared out of the front window silently and, when I turned back, Rose's face was blank. She was in Lissa's head. I stared at her perfect features: her gorgeous brown eyes, her silky brown hair, her soft golden skin and just the overall strength in her face. Nobody would think she was defensive. Not in the universe. A check of the GPS told me that we had just under an hour to go, so I took a quick nap. Energy would be necessary in Rose's plans, so I flexed and settled in comfortably.

Not long after, Sydney tapped my arm and I woke up instantly. She grinned at my wide eyes before sobering up and glancing at Rose. She was still back at Court. She was actually quite lucky to be able to do that. I would love to know what was going on.

"Rose," I murmured, breaking the air softly. Her eyes flicked open. "Everything okay back there?" She nodded but I wondered what she was keeping from me. Nothing important, I hoped.

"Where are we?" she asked, peering out of the window.

"Altswood."

"Makes our last town look like New York." It was pretty drab. Just a small gas station. We drove down a tree filled highway and eventually turned off. Sydney switched off the engine. "Are we at a campground?"

"Are they as good as they say you are?" Sydney questioned me, to my surprise.

"What?" I replied, perplexed.

"Fighting. Everyone keeps talking about how dangerous you are. Is it true?" Oh. That was flattering. And embarrassing.

"Pretty good." I didn't want to sound vain, but Rose didn't seem to think that was enough.

"_Very_ good," she scoffed.

"I hope it's enough," Sydney muttered.

"Aren't you going to ask about me?"

"I already know you're dangerous. I've seen it."

"Why'd we stop?"

"Because we have to go on foot now." Her torch made a bright, slightly blue, circle of light on the forest floor. We wandered down a pathway and then she announced, "There."

"Wait," I ordered and Rose and I immediately shifted into guardian mode. I moved in front of her, leading the way, with Rose bringing up the rear. Sydney wasn't Moroi, but she needed protecting. I whipped at my stake, ready for any potential danger.

"Where are we going?" Rose asked.

"To people I guarantee won't turn you in," Sydney said grimly.

Suddenly there was a brilliant light. We squinted and then we were surrounded by vampires.

**Please review. It means so much to me! Also, please tell me how to add pictures to my profile page. Check my page for updates. **


	9. Chapter 9

I raised my stake and slid closer to Sydney, scanning the faces. They were Moroi, thankfully, but that didn't stop them from being a threat. However, I didn't doubt that Rose and I would be able to take them out. In the light, which was coming from a ball of fire in a Moroi's hands, I could also pick out dhampir faces intermingled with them. Who were these people? One of the Moroi walked forward with a silver stake in his hand. His beard was bushy and brown and his eyes were narrowed. He reached out for Sydney and I started, aiming to pull her away as soon as possible. Rose was too. We were held back, not just by the hands of others, but by Sydney's strangled, "Wait," as the man gripped her chin. He turned her head and the other side of her face lit up.

"Lily-girl," he grunted, and seemed satisfied enough to let her go. I immediately returned to her side. "You're here to join us?"

"We need shelter," Sydney explained, rubbing her throat. "They're being chased by-by the Tainted." The Tainted? What on Earth? Rose looked impossibly more puzzled than I was.

"More like spies for the Tainted," the fire user muttered.

"The Tainted Queen is dead. They think she did it." She nodded towards Rose. The bearded man smiled, which took me by surprise. Wasn't he going to turn us in?

"And so, another usurper passes us on. Is there a new one yet?" he asked.

"No. They'll have elections soon and choose." Mumbling and mutters circled around the clearing.

"How else would they choose a new king or queen?" Rose blurted out, her eyebrows pushed together.

"In the true way," somebody from behind me answered. "The way it used to be, long ago. A battle to the death." Oh no. This wasn't good. I didn't want these people giving Rose ideas. However, there was no crazy smirk, instead a look of astonishment. The bearded man turned and walked down another path and I assumed we had to follow. Rose was still speechless.

After a while we arrived at a huge bonfire. People were congregated around it, chatting amongst themselves, and small shack-like houses were scattered around. They stretched far back into the woods, making me wonder how big this civilisation really was. On the other side of us, mountains stretched high into the sky, their peaks standing out against the stars. I thought that I could see caves in the mountains, but convinced myself I was seeing things. After all, was that humans I saw? Talking to the Moroi casually? Never. I caught Rose murmuring to Sydney but didn't manage to hear much. All I could get was something about Keepers. Was that these people? The Keepers? I would have to ask her myself sometime soon.

"Why are they here, Raymond?" a human woman by the fire addressed the bearded man, who I took to be Raymond. "Are they joining us?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "The Tainted are after them for killing their queen." Rose was about to protest but Sydney elbowed her sharply. From the look of the crowd, they seemed pleased, so this was our only hope. "We're giving them refuge. Although you _are_ welcome to join us and live here. We have room in the caves." I glanced over at the mountains and saw that they really _were_ caves. I couldn't imagine Rose living in one of them. She'd be grumbling about not having cable for the rest of her life.

"We only need to stay here..." Sydney began, "A couple days, probably."

"You can stay with my family. Even you." He said this to Sydney, and I realised that they didn't like the Alchemists much, either.

"Thank you. We'd be grateful to spend the night at your _house_." Obviously meant for Rose. After this conversation, we had many awkward discussions with the Keepers about the queen's murder, before I couldn't take much more.

"Enough," the human woman ordered, "It's getting late and I'm sure our guests are hungry." I tried to conceal my stomach that was rumbling heavily. We wandered down to their house and the woman introduced herself as Sarah. "Did you bring anything?" she asked Sydney.

"No," Sydney answered. "I'm just here to escort them."

"An important task."

"How long has it been since my people brought you anything?"

"A few months." Sydney frowned, and I wondered what she was supposed to have brought. We finally reached the house, which was jet black inside, so Sarah lit some lanterns. Not even electricity. Rose was going to _love_ this.

"You can sleep in the girls' room," Sarah told Rose, nodding to one of the three doors.

"Thanks," Rose muttered. "Are you Raymond's housekeeper?"

"I'm his wife," she smiled.

"Oh." Rose flushed and I resisted slapping my hand to my forehead in exasperation. What was I going to do with her? Yes, it was odd. Yes, I didn't understand it either. But seriously, couldn't she have put it in a nicer way? There was a noise at the door and I turned to see Raymond enter with two children and two people about my age.

He explained everything clearly. The two children were called Phil and Molly. The Moroi woman was Paulette. Joshua was Sarah and Raymond's son.

"I'm putting them in your room," Sarah told Paulette. "The rest of you can share the loft." I looked up to the loft and calculated the numbers. Surely they weren't going to fit all four of them up there?

"We don't want to inconvenience you," I said, speaking for the first time. Rose nodded. "We'll be fine out here."

"Don't worry about it," Joshua smiled, flashing a grin for Rose. My stomach curled in the unfamiliar feeling of jealousy. What was wrong with me? "We don't mind. Angeline won't either."

"Who?" Rose wondered.

"My sister." I struggled to stop my eyes from widening. _Five_ of them up there?

"Thank you," Sydney added graciously. "We appreciate it. And we really won't be staying long."

"Too bad."

"Stop flirting, Josh," Sarah chastised. A little voice inside my head nagged _Yeah. Stop flirting Josh._ "Do you three want something to eat before bed? I could warm up some stew. We had it earlier with some of Paulette's bread."

"No need," Rose hurriedly decided. "I'd just be fine with bread."

"Me too," I added. I didn't really fancy stew, although I knew Rose was worried at the possibilities of what was _in_ the stew. We ate the bread in our room. It was very tasty and there was plenty of it, thankfully. I hadn't realised just how hungry I was. Rose stroked one of the duvets.

"It reminds me of some of the designs I saw in Russia," she murmured. It did. The patterns were exquisitely beautiful.

"Similar," I considered. "But not quite the same."

"It's the evolution of the culture," Sydney explained. "Traditional Russian patterns brought over and eventually fused with a typical Americana patchwork quilt form." She certainly knew her stuff.

"Um, good to know," Rose mumbled. "Are you ready to explain who the hell these people are?"

"The Keepers."

"Yeah, I got that. And we're the Tainted. Sounds like a better name for Strigoi."

"No. Strigoi are the Lost. You're Tainted because you joined the modern world and left behind their backward ways for your own messed up custom." Makes sense. Sort of.

"Hey! We're not the ones with overalls and banjos."

"Rose," I warned, glancing towards the door. "And besides, we only saw one person in overalls." She grinned.

"If it makes you feel better, I think your ways are better," Sydney said. "Seeing humans mix with all this...It's disgusting. No offense."

"None taken," Rose replied. "Trust me, I feel the same way. I can't believe...I can't believe they live like that."

"I like you guys sticking with your own kind better. Except..."

"Except what?"

"Even if the people you come from don't marry humans, you do still interact with them and live in their cities. These guys don't."

"Which Alchemists prefer," I guessed. "You don't approve of this group's customs, but you do like having them conveniently stashed out of mainstream society."

"The more vampires who stay off on their own in the woods, the better-even if their lifestyle is crazy. These guys keep to themselves-and keep others out."

"Through hostile means?" Rose asked. I agreed.

"Hopefully not too hostile."

"They let you through," I pointed out. "They know the Alchemists. Why did Sarah ask about you bringing them things?"

"Because that's what we do. Every so often, for groups like these, we drop of supplies- food for everyone, medicine for the humans. The thing is, if Sarah's right, they could be due for an Alchemist visit. That would be just our luck to be here when it happens." Ah. I hadn't thought about that. It wouldn't be good.

"Wait. You said 'groups like these'. How many of these commune things are out there?" Rose turned towards me. "This isn't like the Alchemists, is it? Something only some of you know about that you're keeping from the rest of us?" I shook my head.

"I'm as astonished by all this as you are," I confessed.

"Some of your leaders probably know about the Keepers in a vague way," Sydney explained. "But no details. No locations. These guys hide themselves pretty well and can move on a moment's notice. They stay away from your people. They don't like your people."

"Which is why they won't turn us in," Rose sighed. "And why they're so excited I might've killed Tatiana. Thanks for that, by the way."

"It gets us protection. Such as it is." She covered a yawn with her hand and I realised that, for a human, she'd been up for ages. "But for now? I'm exhausted. I'm not going to be able to follow anyone's crazy plans- yours or Abe's- if I don't get some sleep."

"Shifts?" Rose asked, looking pointedly at me as Sydney settled down under one of the blankets.

"You go first," I nodded, "and I'll-"

The door swung open and we jumped up. A dhampir girl who looked about fifteen was glaring at us from the doorway.

"So," she greeted us stiffly, "you're the big heroes taking my room."

"Angeline?" Rose guesstimated. She hit the marks.

"Yes." Her eyes narrowed as she scanned us over. I stared her down. "I don't believe it. You're too soft. Too prim." Prim? I didn't think we were prim. She hadn't seen us after some of our battles. I let Rose take charge, unsure of how to fight a girly battle. She shrugged.

"Looks are deceiving," she murmured.

"Yes. They are." She stalked over to the chest of drawers. "You better not mess up my bed. I don't care what you do to Paulette's."

"Is Paulette your sister?"

"Of course not." She looked even more taken aback. She slammed the door and we were left staring at it blankly.

"Paulette is probably Raymond's…eh, I don't know. Mistress," Sydney explained. "Concubine."

"What?" Rose exclaimed. We seemed to be completely taken off guard today. "Living with his family?"

"Don't ask me to explain it. I don't want to know any more about your twisted ways than I have to."

"It's not _my_ way." Sarah soon came to apologise for Angeline and I assured her that we were fine, although Rose looked ready to ask for something I couldn't guess at. After she left, Rose slipped into Angeline's bed and promptly fell asleep. I watched her peaceful expression as she dreamed and was left thinking to myself.

Okay, so I managed to get it up after all. Lucky you! Please review, guys. It means so much to me.


	10. Chapter 10

**I don't own Vampire Academy. It belongs to Richelle Mead and penguin publishing.**

She looked so beautiful in her sleep. Once, when I was a Strigoi, I'd called her an angel come to avenge the rights of heaven. Because, despite her sarcastic attitude, she _was_ an angel. At least, to me she was. Her gorgeous brown hair was splayed across the pillow and her cheek was pressed up against it. It made her look sweet and innocent and wonderful...she was everything I wanted and everything I couldn't have.

I scanned the room like a respectable guardian and noticed two exits: the door and the window. We were only on the ground floor, so the window shouldn't be too hard to get out of in an emergency. Not to mention the fact that this house had about seven people capable of fighting Strigoi. No wonder they never came here. It would be like Hell on Earth. The room was made of the same wood as the rest of the house, which meant we couldn't use fire as it would burn down. I doubted Raymond would be too happy about that.

The duvet rustled and Rose stiffened. I glanced at her curiously. Her face was hardened and I wondered if she was having a nightmare. Should I wake her up? I used to do that for my sisters. However, I didn't think Rose was the sort of person to care about nightmares. Besides, her stiff position stayed the same for ages, meaning it was the same dream. Shouldn't that completely defy the laws of science? They were only supposed to last for about seven minutes each. And then it hit me. Dreams that defy science. It was so obvious. She just _had_ to be in a spirit dream. So who with? Surely, if she were with Adrian, she'd be happy to see him? So who else was a spirit user that I hadn't heard of? Lissa couldn't do it yet...

The whole time, the only thing that changed was her facial expression, and even then it was only infinitesimally from anger to confusion. I briefly glanced around the room again, sat back and leaning against the wall. I heard a small gasp and glanced over to where Rose lay. Her back was to me now so I couldn't see her very well. At first, I thought it was a shame. But then my inner voice, which sounded horrifically like my mother, yelled, _Good! You shouldn't be watching young girls that don't have anything to do with you sleep! She's with Adrian_. I sighed. Who would've thought that just when we thought we'd figured everything out, I'd become a Strigoi. Who would've thought that _Adrian Ivashkov_ would be able to stop me from having what I truly wanted?

**Sorry it's a bit long. This chapter is all spirit dreaming, so I'll write another to make up for it.**


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't own Vampire Academy. It belongs to Richelle Mead and penguin publishing.**

The rest of the night was just as boring as any other night. I watched the room carefully. Sydney never stirred and I envied her having a full night's sleep. I was getting exhausted now. When I woke up Rose for her shift, she seemed alert and ready, so I slipped into the bed gratefully and closed my eyes. I was out within seconds. I wondered if any spirit dreams and sincerely hoped not. I didn't fancy seeing however Rose had been with. Her cheerful mood had probably been triggered by yet _another_ spirit dream with Adrian that I hadn't seen, and I certainly didn't want the after-effects of that. He gloated enough as it was.

Thankfully, I managed to get some rest that night. Spirit dreams had always made me feel even more tired than I was before, so my dreams were invited gladly. They were usually just dots of colour and small visions of my family, friends and Rose. I tried to chase that last one away but my subconscious just kept bringing it back up. I guess I really wouldn't ever get over her. _Stupid idiot, Dimka_, my mother's voice chastised. _If you had been more careful then you could've been spending this summer together happily. Maybe you'd get the chance to be a guardian._ That was another thing to worry me. If we managed to get back to Court and prove our innocence, I doubted we'd get to be guardians again, especially me. We'd probably end up filing or cleaning the courtyards. Great. I often found myself having nightmares about being Strigoi that made me fidget and moan. Sleep wasn't always the best for me.

There was a sudden touched to my shoulder and I jerked awake, scanning the room. Rose was smiling at my face.

"Easy," she murmured. "Just a wake-up call. Sounds like our red-neck friends are getting up."

I stretched and clambered out of the bed. Sydney rolled over and squinted at the light.

"What time is it?" she mumbled.

"Not sure. Probably past midday. Maybe three? Four?" The sun streaming in from the window was a pretty big clue. She sat up sharply.

"In the afternoon? Damn you guys and your unholy schedule."

"Did you just say 'damn'?" Rose teased. "Isn't that against Alchemist rules?"

"Sometimes it's necessary. I guess we need a plan."

"We have one. Find Lissa's sibling."

"I never entirely agreed to that. And you guys keep thinking I can just magically type away like some movie hacker to find all your answers."

"Well at least it's a place to- Crap. Your laptop won't even work out here."

"It's got a satellite modem, but it's the battery we have to worry about. I need a coffee shop or something."

"I think I saw one in a cave down the road," Rose joked. I smiled.

"There's got to be some town close by where I could use my laptop."

"But it's probably not a good idea to take the car out anywhere in this state," I pointed out, speaking for the first time. "Just in case someone at the motel got your license plate number."

"I know. I was thinking about that too." There was a knock at the door and we all swivelled around to see Sarah smiling at us.

"Oh good," she said. "You're all awake. We're getting breakfast ready if you want to join us." I could smell the delicious scent of bacon and eggs wafting through the doorway and my stomach rumbled. The bread had been nice, but I could really do with a full-on breakfast. We trudged into the main room where everybody was busy doing something. Raymond was cooking the bacon over the fire. He grinned when we walked in.

"Good morning," he greeted us. "I hope you're all hungry."

"Do you think that's, like, _real_ bacon?" Rose whispered to us. "And not, like, squirrel or something."

"Looks real to me," I replied.

"I'd say so too," Sydney added. "Though I guarantee it's from their own pigs and not a grocery store." An odd look crossed Rose's face and I laughed.

"I love seeing what worries you. Strigoi? No. Questionable food? Yes." It just didn't make sense.

"What about Strigoi?" Angeline asked, entering the room with Joshua, the kids and a basket of blackberries.

"Just talking about some of Rose's Strigoi kills," I covered Rose up smoothly. Joshua's blue eyes widened.

"You've killed the Lost?" he stammered. "Er- Strigoi? How many?" Rose shrugged.

"I don't really know anymore," she answered. It was definitely a large amount, possibly more than me.

"Don't you use the marks?" Raymond chastised. "I didn't think the Tainted had abandoned those."

"The marks-Oh. Yeah, our tattoos? We do." She turned and revealed her neck in all it's glory. Tattoo ink was covering it completely. Joshua touched her neck and she whirled around defensively.

"Sorry," he apologised. "I've just never seen some of these. Only the _molnija_ marks. They mark our Strigoi kills. You've got...a lot." Understatement of the century.

"The S-shaped mark is unique to _them,"_ Raymond explained. "The other's the _zvezda._" The room was filled with gasps.

"What?" Rose asked, perplexed.

"The battle mark," I added, wistfully. I hadn't got one as I'd been killed in the battle. "Not many people call it a _zvezda_ anymore. It means star."

"Huh. Makes sense."

"Now I understand how you could've killed the Tainted Queen," Joshua breathed admiringly.

"It's probably fake," Angeline snapped. Uh-oh. The alarmed look on Sydney's face told me she was thinking the same thing.

"It is not!" Rose shrieked. "I earned it when Strigoi attacked our school. And then there were plenty more I took down after that."

"The mark can't be that uncommon," I interrupted, trying to divert this conversation away. "Your people must have big Strigoi fights every once in a while."

"Not really," Joshua replied, his eyes still on Rose. I watched him disapprovingly. "Most of us have never fought or even seen the Lost. They don't really bother us."

"Why not?" Rose asked the obvious question.

"Because we fight back," Raymond replied, winking. Breakfast followed and we all ate together, talking about techniques etc.

"We need more supplies," Sydney said abruptly. "Where's the nearest town that would have a coffee shop...or any restaurant?"

"Well," Paulette began. "Rubysville is a little over an hour north. But we have plenty of food here for you."

"It's not about food. Yours has been great," Rose added quickly. "An hour's not so bad, right?"

"Is there any way...is there any way we could borrow a car? I'll," Sydney paused, and I realised that her car was very precious to her. She was human after all. "I'll leave the keys to mine until we get back."

"You've got a nice car," Raymond said, arching an eyebrow.

"The less we drive it around here, the better."

We set out quickly afterwards in the truck. Joshua escorted us to it.

"I hope you won't be gone long," he flirted with Rose. "I wanted us to talk more."

"Sure," she answered. "That'd be fun."

"Maybe I can show you my cave."

"Your-wait. What? Don't you live with your dad?"

"For now. But I'm getting my own place. It's not as big as his, of course, but it's a good start. It's almost cleaned out." I wondered what he was _cleaning out_.

"That's really, um, great. Definitely show me when we're back." We found the truck then and we'd been travelling down the road for about ten minutes when I said,

"You shouldn't lead him on like that." It wasn't really that awkward talking to Rose about flirting. I'd had my time.

"Huh?"

"Joshua. You were flirting with him."

"I was not! We were just talking."

"Aren't you with Adrian?" I tried to keep the hope of the 'No' out of my voice.

"Yes!" She glared at me and I avoided sighing. "And that's why I wasn't flirting. How can you read so much into that? Joshua doesn't even like me that way." _Sure._ Sydney proved my point.

"Actually, he does." Rose turned to her.

"How do you know? Did he pass you a note in class or something?"

"No. But you and Dimitri are like gods back at the camp." Cool.

"We're outsiders. Tainted."

"No, you're renegade Strigoi- and queen-killers. It have all been southern charm and hospitality back there, but those people can be savage. They put a big premium on being able to beat people up. And, considering how scruffy most of them are, you guys are, well...let's just say you two are the hottest things to walk through there in a while."

"You're not hot?"

"It's irrelevant. Alchemists aren't even on their radar. We don't fight. They think we're weak."

"Raymond's family was pretty good-looking." I grunted at her comment. Flirt.

"Yeah. Because they're probably the most important family in town. They eat better, probably don't have to work in the sun as much. That kind of stuff makes a difference."

We stopped at a coffee shop and left Sydney to her Alchemist business. I decided that it would be a nice idea to go for a walk, and Rose joined me.

"Or any place," Rose murmured after we'd been walking for a while.

"Hmm?" I asked. Was she talking to herself?

"I was just thinking about if the guardians find us. I never realised how much there was I wanted to do and see. Suddenly, that's all at stake, you know? Okay, suppose my name isn't cleared and we never find the real murderer. What's the next best-case scenario? Me: always running, always hiding. That'll be my life. For all I know, I _will_ have to go and live with the Keepers."

"It won't come to that. Abe and Sydney will help you find some place safe."

"Is there a safe place? For real? Adrian said the guardians are increasing their efforts to find us. They've got the Alchemists and probably human authorities looking for us too. No matter where we go, we'll run the risk of being spotted. Then we'll have to move on. It'll be like that forever."

"You'll be alive. That's what matters. Enjoy what you have, every little detail of wherever you are. Don't focus on where you _aren't_." I gave her my advice and tried to do it myself. Leave those Strigoi days behind and live life to the full. But it was too hard. They taunted me.

"Yeah. I suppose I shouldn't whine over the dream places I won't get to see. I should be grateful that I get to see anything at all. And that I'm not living in a cave." Suddenly, I had an idea. I looked over at her with a smile on my face,

"Where do you want to go?" I asked.

"What, right now?"

"No. In the World."

"Sydney's going to be pissed if we take off for Istanbul or something." I laughed. Trust Rose to want to go to the other side of the world.

"Not what I had in mind. Come on." When I'd scanned the village, I noticed a small library beside the ice cream parlour. Rose ground to a halt.

"Whoa, hey. One of the few perks of graduating was avoiding places like this."

"It's probably air-conditioned," I pointed out, looking down at her slightly pink arms.

"Lead on," she commanded. I led us over to the Travel section, hoping for something interesting. There were ten books, three of which were about West Virginia. Frowning, I said,

"Not quite what I expected." I pulled out the book _100 Best Places to Visit in the World_. It looked good enough. We sat on the floor and I handed her the book. She raised one eyebrow.

"No way, comrade. I know books are a journey of the imagination, but I don't think I'm up for it today."

"Just take it. Close your eyes and flip randomly to a page." She did as I said and opened out her page.

"Mitchell, South Dakota? Of all the places in the World, that makes the top 100?" I smiled again. Rose always made me happy.

"Read it."

"Located ninety minutes out of Sioux Falls, Mitchell is home to the 'Corn Palace'. _Corn Palace?_" She looked up at me in disbelief. I peered at the page where there was a picture.

"I figured it would be made of corn husks."

"Me too. I'd visit it. I bet they have great T-shirts."

"And I bet no guardians would look for us there." She laughed at the crazy thought of living in the Corn Palace and I took my turn. Sao Paolo, Brazil. We alternated, reading about the places and looking at the beautiful pictures. Honolulu, Hawaii. I smiled. Rose had always wanted to go there.

I looked down and our arms and legs were just touching. I was so aware of her, it hurt.

"Florence, Italy," she read. "Sydney wants to go there. She wanted to study there, actually. If Abe could've managed that, I think she would've served him for life."

"She's still pretty obedient. I don't know her well, but I'm pretty sure Abe's got something on her."

"He got her out of Russia, back to the U.S."

"It's got to be more than that. Alchemists are loyal to their order. They don't like us. She hides it-they're trained to- but every minute with the Keepers is agony. For her to help us and betray her superiors, she owes him for some serious reason. It's irrelevant though. She's helping us, which is what matters...and we should probably get back to her."

"One more." She handed the book to me and I opened it on a random page.

"Saint Petersburg." I admired the mesmerising turrets and domes, the contrasting colours. I loved Saint Petersburg. It was almost home to me. I missed it. It ached in my chest.

"Hey," Rose said, nudging mu elbow, "enjoy where you're at, remember? Not where you can't go."

"How'd you get so wise?" I teased.

"I had a good teacher." She grinned up at me and I couldn't help but smile back. "Is that why you escaped with me? To see what parts of the World you could?" I was shocked. How had she guessed that?

"You don't need me to be wise, Rose. You're doing fine on your own. Yes, that was part of it. Maybe I would've been welcomed back eventually, but there was the risk I wouldn't. After...after being Strigoi," I struggled to find the right words, "I gained a new appreciation for life. It took a while. I'm still not there. We're talking about focusing on the present, not the future, but it's my past that haunts me. Faces. Nightmares. But the further I get from that World of death, the more I want to embrace life. The smell of these books an the perfume you wear. The way the light bends through that window. Even the taste of breakfast with the Keepers." I let out everything to Rose. It was nice being like this, and I realised that we would just be friends. It would never be enough, but it would do.

"You're a poet now."

"No, just starting to realise the truth. I respect the law and the way our society runs, but there was no way I could risk losing life in some cell after only just finding it again. I wanted to run too. That's why I helped you. That and-"I caught myself. I'd said too much. She wouldn't appreciate it. She wouldn't want me, not after what I did to her.

"What?" I kept my face blank.

"It doesn't matter. Let's go back to Sydney and see if she's found out anything...although, as much as I hate to say it, I think it's unlikely."

"I know. She probably gave up and started playing _Minesweeper_." We stood up and stopped briefly to get an ice cream. I licked it gratefully, letting the minty taste linger on my tongue. It was so delicious. We reached the cafe and slid into the seats beside Sydney. I wondered if she would actually finish that Danish.

"How's it-" Rose asked. "Hey! You _are_ playing _Minesweeper_! You're supposed to be finding a connection to Eric's mistress."

"I already did," she replied proudly. I looked at Rose and my eyes widened. We were on to something here. "But I don't know how useful it'll be."

"Anything'll be useful. What did you find?"

"After trying to track down all those bank record and transactions-and let me tell you, that is _not_ fun at all- I finally found a small piece of info. The bank account we have now is a newer one. It was moved from another bank account about five years ago. The old account was still a Jane Doe, _but_ it did have a next of kin reference in the event something happened to the account holder."

"A real name?" Rose asked. I was eager as she was, excited at this new piece of information. Sydney nodded.

"Sonya Karp."


	12. Chapter 12

**I don't own Vampire Academy. It belongs to Richelle Mead and penguin publishing.**

Rose and I froze. I knew that name. _Everyone_ knew that name. Sydney gave us a dry smile.

"I take it you know who that is," she asked.

"Of course," Rose exclaimed. "She was my teacher. She went crazy and turned Strigoi."

"I know." Sydney nodded. Sonya Karp had taught _Rose_? Oh God. I hoped Rose had been nice to her. She had every right to be crazy.

"She's not..." Rose's eyes widened. "She's not the one who had an affair with Lissa's dad, is she?" I felt shock course through me. Imagine your father having an affair with your school teacher. I shuddered at just the horrid thought of it. No, I didn't think that was right.

"Not likely. The account was opened several years before she was added as the beneficiary-which was right when she turned eighteen. So if we're assuming the account was created around the time the baby was born, then she would've been way too young. Sonya's probably a relative."

"You must have records about her family," I said. This could actually work if we did. Our plan would, for once, go right! "Or if not, some Moroi probably does. Who's close to Sonya? Does she have a sister?" Mikhail Tanner was close to her. We could always ask him.

"No." Sydney shook her head. "That'd be an obvious choice, though. Unfortunately she has other family-_tons_ of it. Her parents both came from giant families, so she has lots of cousins. Even some of her aunts are the right age." Great.

"We can look them up, right?" Rose wondered, excitement building up. If we could contact some of Sonya's family, Lissa could get a place on the council and may be able to sort out this mess, as well as the stupid stuff about graduating at 16. Sydney shrugged.

"There's a lot of them. I mean, yeah, we could. It'd take a long time to find everyone's life history, and even then-especially if this was covered up enough- we'd have a hard time finding out if any of them is this woman we're looking for. Or even if any of them know who she is." I tried to think of people that looked like Sonya Karp and people that looked like Lissa Dragomir. I was coming up blank. How were we going to get this information? Suddenly, something Rose had taught me back when we were in Russia, flashed up in my mind. It was horrible, and I took my time deciding whether to put it forward or not. But, it was for the greater good. If I could just make this one little sacrifice...I started slowly.

"One person knows who Jane Doe is," I murmured.

They looked at me.

"Sonya Karp," I explained. Rose threw her hands up in the air with exasperation, just like I knew she would.

"Yeah, but we can't talk to her. She's a lost cause. Mikhail Tanner spent over a year hunting her and couldn't find her. If he can't then, then we're not going to be able to." I turned and stared at the lovely summer's day out the window. I wouldn't be able to enjoy that if I was a Strigoi. I'm not a Strigoi. I'm _not_ a Strigoi. I am a dhampir, and I can help my friends by doing whatever they ask of me. I sighed and looked back. "That's because he didn't have the right connections."

"Mikhail was her boyfriend. He had more connections than anyone else." Boyfriend. It seemed like a petty word. Eternal lover suited it more. Poor guy. He had tried so hard, but we could only do the impossible to get to her.

"Does your phone have reception out here?" I asked Sydney. She nodded and handed it to me. It was so small in my palm and I couldn't believe I was actually going to do this. I'd tried to put this world behind me. I took a deep breath and headed out the door. I dialled the number, squeezed my eyes shut and pressed the _send_ button. Pressing the phone to my ears, I waited for the endless beeping to be interrupted by the harsh voice that I knew.

"Boris?" I asked it.

"Yes, who's speaking?" he replied in Russian. Good. I didn't really want the other two hearing it, but I was sure that Sydney knew Russian due to her post there.

"It's Dimitri." Except it wasn't really me. It was an old me, a me I wanted to put behind me. And I would, after this one call. I tried to make myself sound as fierce and controlling as possible.

"Oh hey, how's it going over in America?" Boris' voice was lazy.

"I have no time for chit-chat!" I spat. I could almost see him shudder at the other end of the line.

"Yes, well, everything is fine over here, now that Galina's estate was left pretty empty. Er, all your stuff is safe and secure just in case you want to, um, come back and use it. A couple of others took up your play-toy idea." I grimaced. I'd started a Strigoi revolution. Crap.

"Boris, you've been slacking off! I can tell! I have spies all over Russia working for me and I know that you haven't been doing your work properly, have you? NO!" Actually, I couldn't tell, but it was quite likely. In fact, I still had spies that didn't know I'd been turned back. It had been pretty secret from the Strigoi world.

"Well, maybe you should be here, sir, to check up on me yourself. Maybe your spies aren't loyal to you anymore and are lying."

"NO THEY ARE NOT! Do _not_ question me, Boris." I made his name sound like a foul word. "You know fully well that I am head of that estate now, and therefore you will DO AS I SAY! Ok?"£

"Yes, sir. What ever you say. All the time, sir, I hunt for you. I will bring you food from the best of the best."

"Good. I need you to tell me something urgently. This is extremely important for the safety of our estate. Where is Sonya Karp?"

"Sonya Karp, sir? I don't know where Sonya Karp is. I've never met her."

"She used to live in Montana. Tell me, you useless fool!"

"I don't know, sir. But I-I do know somebody who might." I could hear Sydney murmuring to Rose behind me, but I tuned them out. "I had a group over there recently that might've run into her. I could ask them. If that's what you want."

"OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT I WANT, YOU IDIOT! I NEED TO KNOW WHERE SONYA KARP IS. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANSWERS BY _TONGIHT_, I'M GOING TO FIND YOU AND RIP YOUR APART BEFORE STAKING YOU AND LEAVING YOU IN THE SUN TO DIE. YOU WILL BE FINISHED, I TELL YOU. _FINISHED._" I breathed heavily, trying to calm myself. I was doing quite well at playing Strigoi, as I was letting all my anger out on Boris.

"Yes, sir. Of course I will have the answers by tonight."

"Good." I slammed the phone shut and returned it to Sydney. She took it with quivering hands. Rose looked up at me worriedly. I slumped against the wall and tried to regain my humanity. I breathed deeply and closed my eyes, feeling the sun on my skin, full-proof that I wasn't Strigoi. I don't know how long I leaned against that wall, but my emotions were over-powering me. The faces of people I'd killed flashed in front of my face. I couldn't shake them away. I could smell burning Strigoi flesh, could feel blood in my mouth. I could hear cries of agony, and it was all my fault.

I looked back and explained. "I've sent someone to ask about her. It might not work out. Strigoi are hardly the type to keep a database. But they do occasionally keep an eye on one another, if only for their own self-preservation. We'll soon find out of there are any hits."

"I...wow. Thank you," Rose fumbled with words that meant nothing to me. I just wanted someone to soothe me, to tell me it wasn't my fault. But Rose was probably too afraid to go near me now.

"We should get back to the Keepers...unless you think this is a safe place to stay?"

"I'd rather stay off civilised radar," Sydney decided. "Besides, I want my car keys back."

I drove us back, focusing on the road instead of my feelings. I couldn't let them get the better of me. I had to be the strong Dimitri. The one that people relied on.

When we got back to the camp, there was a little communal campfire going on. We went back to Raymond's house and I felt the urgent need to lie down. Joshua jumped up when he saw us. Well, Rose.

"Rose!" he cried. "You're back! We were starting to worry... I mean, not that anything had happened to you-not with your skills-but maybe that you'd just left us."

"Not without our car," Sydney added. She snatched our keys from the table and replaced them with the truck's keys. We refused Sarah's offers of leftovers, especially as Rose and I had had ice cream.

"Well," she began, "if you're not going to eat, you might as well join the others out at the fire. Jess McHale might sing tonight, if they can get her to drink enough, and drunk or sober, that woman has the finest voice I've ever heard." I glanced at the other two. It might be interesting. I'd much rather stay inside, but Sydney decided she would go, so I would go with her. Goodness knows what these Keepers were like drunk.

"Do you want to see me cave?" Joshua asked Rose. "There's a little light left outside. You'll get a better view that way than if we have to use a torch." I frowned at her. She shouldn't be flirting with people we were going to leave soon. She'd been a real flirt when I'd first met her, and she hadn't changed _that_ much.

"Sure, I'd love too," she replied. I glared at her back as she wandered off. Sydney and I headed to the campfire where the 'festivities' were just beginning. We were definitely the most boring people there; the timid Alchemist and stiff guardian. I'd been to several parties, but only one had I actually gotten drunk at. It was before I graduated and I had enjoyed it, but that's what you give up to be a guardian. The Keepers laughed and told jokes about things they used to do. Sydney and I listened politely, smiling and clapping when necessary. It all felt false. Jess McHale turned out to be a brilliant singer, and I found myself moved by her voice, until some of the other Keepers, who were _very_ drunk, started joining in. I looked over at the caves and wondered when Rose would come back. I hoped she hadn't got into trouble. I scanned the campfire and saw Rose coming down the hill with Joshua. He was bobbing his head along to the music, and I saw something glint on her wrist. She was leading him on _way_ too much. _Stop flirting, Rose,_ thought to myself. But I knew that really I was just trying to mask my ridiculous jealousy. Rose started walking towards us when I noticed Angeline creeping up behind her. She should've been paying more attention. Angeline swung her fist towards Rose's face and she dodged out of the way, getting the blow on her cheek.

"Okay," Angeline spat through gritted teeth. "It's time to find out how tough you really are." What was going on? Angeline looked truly angry. I thought she'd been trying to make her jump or something. I sprang up, ready to help Rose defend herself, but a group of Keepers crowded around me and whispered in my ears.

"Stay here," they muttered urgently. "You have to let her defend herself." I watched the fight as Rose dodged another hit.

"Why?" I hissed.

"Joshua proposed to her, so the sister has to fight her to see if she's worthy." I almost choked. "You're going to have to fight Joshua." Sydney grinned.

"Are you insane?" I heard Rose shout, and I almost laughed. _Almost._ "Stop this, I don't want to hurt you."

"Sure, that's what you want everyone to think, right? If you don't actually have to fight, then they'll all go on believing those marks are real." Ooh, girly fight. My 24-year-old self loved watching this sort of stuff, even if it was stupid. I was supposed to be a mature guardian.

"They _are_ real!"

"Prove it. Prove you're who you say you are." Rose was just trying to get away from her instead of actually fighting, and the crowd was getting bored.

"I don't have to prove anything."

"It's a lie then. Everything you Tainted do is a lie."

"Not true." I couldn't help myself. I felt a stupid smile spread across my face. Rose really didn't know what she'd gotten herself into. How many times had I warned her? Now she was engaged and fighting for a reason that she didn't know.

"You're all liars. You're all weak. Especially your 'royals'. They're the worst of all." Taunting like a Strigoi. That was really going to get Rose going.

"You don't know them at all. You don't know anything about them."

"I know enough. I know they're selfish and spoiled and don't do anything for themselves. They don't care about anyone else. They're all the same."

"Don't talk about things you don't understand. They're not all like that." Notice the word all.

"They _are_. I wish they were all dead." A shocked gasp ran through the crowd and Sydney's eyes widened. I knew Rose was thinking of Lissa and she was caught off guard. Angeline whacked her on the knee, which made her stumble, and started to push her over. _Oh Rose, what are you doing?_ I thought. Rose tackled her to the ground but Angeline rolled over. Rose punched her on the cheek, which was bound to hurt, but Angeline yanked her hair. Rose yelled and pinned her down, throwing all her weight into it. The crowd cheered and Rose slowly stood up, brushing herself down. I laughed at what would happen next.

"Fine," Angeline sighed. "I guess it's okay. Go ahead."

"Huh? What's okay?" Rose demanded.

"It's okay if you marry my brother."


	13. Chapter 13

**I've got a little freedom with this chapter, so sorry if it doesn't sound right to you. **

**I don't own Vampire Academy. It belongs to Richelle Mead and penguin publishing.**

"It's not funny!" Rose exclaimed.

"You're right," Sydney agreed. "It's not funny. It's hilarious!"

We were back in our room and Rose was still annoyed about her 'engagement' with Joshua. To be honest, it was a weird custom, but it was her own fault for getting caught up in this kind of situation anyway. Mentor always knows best. I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed and watched her scowl.

"Stop that!" She rubbed her cheekbone. Angeline was a pretty good fighter. I couldn't help but smile a little bit.

"I told you not to encourage him," I reminded her.

"Whatever. You didn't see this coming. You just didn't want me to-" She broke off. Didn't want me to what, Rose? What was she thinking? She'd always been able to see right through me, but I thought I'd been keeping my emotions safely tucked away. She turned to Sydney in exasperation.

"Did _you_ know about this custom?"

"No," she admitted, "But I'm not surprised. I told you they're savage. A lot of ordinary problems are solved by fights like that."

"It's stupid. Although...she wasn't bad. Unpolished, but not bad. Are they all that tough? The humans and Moroi too?" Surely not quite as tough. They didn't have the strength and speed we had.

"That's my understanding."

"And that's why Strigoi don't bother them," Rose muttered, feeling for bruises. I felt my smile fall slack and I looked away. Rose had reminded me of something I really didn't want to be doing.

"I should check in with Boris again and se what he's found. It won't take long. We don't all need to go." I turned to Sydney. "Should I take your car since I only have to go a little ways?" She shrugged and I grabbed the keys.

"You should still go," Rose told her quickly. "I need to check in on Lissa. I can usually still keep track of what's going on around me at the same time, but it might be better if you're away-especially if Alchemists do show up." What was she up to?

"I doubt they'd come while it's dark," Sydney replied, "but I don't really want to hang out if you're just going to stare into space." I frowned. She didn't need to come with me. Why was Rose making her come with me? I didn't _want_ Sydney hearing what I was saying. However, we both set off, leaving Rose sitting alone in the little room. We drove for about ten minutes and I checked the phone signal. Sighing, I got out of the car and dialled the number. A voice interrupted the endless ringing tones.

"Hello?"

"Boris? It's Dimitri." I quickly switched to Russian.

"Oh, yes. I don't know where Sonya Karp is-"

"_You don't know?_"

"Er, no, but I-"

"YOU DON'T KNOW!" I felt Sydney flinch behind me as my voice rose in fury. "I TOLD YOU TO FIND HER INFORMATION! You have failed me!"

"No, no, please listen."

"Don't you go telling me what to do!"

"I know somebody else who knows where Sonya Karp is."

"Who is it?" I was unaware of my voice slipping in and out of English. I hoped that Sydney wasn't too bothered about what I said.

"His name is Donovan. I think you know him." I nodded although he couldn't see. "He's in Lexington, Kentucky."

"Kentucky? I told you I was in MONTANA!"

"Yes, but it's the closest person I could find for you. He owns a tattoo parlour. Sometimes they feed off of clients, sometimes they actually do give them tattoos."

"You mean they're in association with _humans_? You know I hate those filthy creatures!" There was a gasp from behind me. I could almost feel my eyes turning red, see my skin ghostly pale. I could see all the faces of people I killed floating in front the beautiful scenery.

"Yes, but he has information on Sonya Karp. Dimitri, he is the only person who knows her. I called everyone, honestly, I did."

"He'd better have the right information."

"He will. He will." Boris was blabbing now, scared of what I would do to him.

"Good. Because if he doesn't, _you_ are going to pay. I will peel off your skin, burn you in a boiling cauldron full of Moroi elements, dress you in silver and leave you on top of a volcano! Do you understand?"

"What about D-Donovan, sir?"

"You can watch him die first as you are bound up in silver chains!"

"Y-Yes, sir. He will have the right information, sir."

"Good." I snapped the phone shut and collapsed to the floor. I stared at the blue sky, the fluffy clouds wandering past the bright sun. What did I do to deserve this? Sydney stood there, watching me, not knowing what to do. If Rose was here, she would put a comforting arm around me. She would tell me everything was okay. She was the only one that saw me like that, thank goodness, and therefore the only one who could help me. Even Lissa, who I was eternally grateful to, could not help me like that. No matter how much I denied my feelings for Rose, they were still there. After a while, Sydney dared to speak to me.

"Er, should we go back now?" I sat in silence and handed her the phone. Picking myself up, we drove back to the Keepers. The car journey seemed even longer than before, and Sydney was still trembling. I took it as a good sign that I sounded right for a Strigoi, trying not to let it get to me. I wondered, instead, what Rose had seen through Lissa. We got back to the little room and Rose was sat in the corner, eyes glazed over. It had always creeped me out a bit, but now I knew what it was. I touched her arm gently. There was no response. Something must be important.

"Rose?" Sydney asked anxiously. Still nothing.

"Rose?" That was my turn. She blinked furiously and looked up at us.

"Hey," she answered me. "You're back. You called the Strigoi?" I tried not to flinch.

"Yes. I got a hold of Boris' contact." I think Rose noticed my avoidance of the word. Sydney crossed her arms.

"Crazy conversation. Some of it was in English. It was even scarier than before," she told her. Oh God, had I scarred her forever? I didn't mean to upset her. Oh no oh no. Rose shivered.

"But did you find out anything?" she wondered.

"Boris gave me the name of a Strigoi who knows Sonya and probably knows where she is," I said. "It's actually someone I've met. But phone calls only go so far with Strigoi. There's no way to contact him-except to go in person. Boris only had his address."

"Where is it?" she ventured.

"Lexington, Kentucky."

"Oh for God's sake. Why not the Bahamas? Or the Corn Palace?" I couldn't help a small smile at the memories of our earlier escapade in the library. The success of getting Rose to read was short-lived, but it had been so much fun. I concentrated on that instead of my latest mission. Rose didn't know how much she helped me without even realising.

"If we leave right now, we can reach him in the morning." Rose looked around.

"Tough choice. Leave all this for electricity and plumbing?"

"And no more marriage proposals," Sydney piped in.

"And we'll probably have to fight Strigoi," I said with a grin. She got up immediately.

"How soon can we go?"

**Sorry it's a bit short. I wasn't entirely sure if I could write four pages of evil Strigoi talk whilst Rose was in Lissa's head, so I'll get started on another chapter soon, I promise.**

**Are three little reviews too much to ask for? Please, if you want another chapter, please review. It really makes my day.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you for the reviews! Whilst reading this story, I was listening to Numb by Linkin Park. It might make it a bit more interesting, I don't know. I suggest listening to it during Dimitri's nightmare.**

**I don't own Vampire Academy.**

Leaving the Keepers was...interesting. It wasn't like we'd got close to them or anything, but we were extremely grateful for their hospitality. Sydney promised that the Alchemists would come with more supplies soon. I tried to avoid all the women surrounding me. Since I'd turned 13, I'd been a hot topic (excuse the pun) in the female species, but I wasn't used to it so much now due to my guardian status. However, I seemed to be permanently with them. Some of them twirled their hair at me, or batted their eyelashes, but it had no affect. I'd learned to block this out ages ago. Mentally cursing Rose for attracting even more attention to us, I kindly declined all their offers, turning away before I could see their disappointed faces. This was _not_ what I wanted. I wasn't capable of it. I vaguely noticed Rose having some sort of talk with Angeline and I hoped she was threatening her. Angeline looked like she was pleading and Rose seemed really upset to deny her of whatever it was that she wanted.

We ended up hugging the Keepers goodbye. It felt stiff and odd, but they'd gotten used to us pretty easily. I tried persuading Sydney to let me drive the car, but she was adamant. Rose had never told me that she liked her cars, but it wasn't hard to figure out. She typed the address I gave her into her GPS and we set off. Considering not much could happen in the car, Rose and I agreed we could sleep for a little bit. The drive was six hours, which was definitely enough to gain what we had lost last night, Although, from the look on Rose's face, she was in Lissa's head. Her eyes were blank and she seemed dead to the World. I wondered what was going on. It had only been a few days since the funeral, so maybe they were having the new votes. Had they already had it? Oh God, what if they'd already voted? This would give us hardly any time to prove Rose's innocence. What if the new King or Queen was against Lissa's place in the Court? All these thoughts kept running through my head as I wondered what Rose was seeing.

I tried to keep myself calm. I would never sleep if I didn't. I focused on...I don't know. I just closed my eyes and drifted softly into blackness. I only saw blurs for the most of it, but Rose's beautiful face kept popping up, no matter how hard I tried to deny it. However, as much as I was enjoying seeing Rose, my dreams soon became injected with pain. The faces floated around her, with their pale skin and red eyes. Suddenly, I was flung into my nightmare.

_I stood in the Academy's grounds. I was on watch and, as I strolled by Rose's dorm, I happened to realise that she wasn't in it. Shaking my head, I sighed. Hadn't she realised by now that I will always find her. People say I'm either amazing or stalker-ish, but I just have an uncanny sense of where Rose is. However, I couldn't seem to find her tonight. There was a scream and I whirled around to see her being tackled to the ground by five Strigoi._

"_Dimitri!" she called. I tried to shout back at her but my "Roza!" came out as a gasp. One of the Strigoi, a blonde one, turned and winked at me. I felt as if I'd been possessed. This wasn't me doing this. I ran forward and I saw Rose begin to fight her way out, relieved at my presence. It was short-lived, because suddenly I leaned in and bit her with the fangs that seemed to sprout out of nowhere. She gasped as I took her by surprise. Her shock turned to moans of pleasure and I felt a thrill that I could coax that noise that noise out of her. However, her fumbling protests soon fell away and I pulled away, holding a lifeless Rose in my arms. I seemed to regain my control and wept into her shirt, unable to believe what I'd done. I laid her down carefully and rampaged around the forest, killing everything in my sight, until I realised that I'd made a giant gash across her gorgeous face. _

I woke up with a start. Sweat was pouring from my forehead and my eyes were as wide as saucers. I struggled to breath, and I wanted to sob into my mother's arms. I was suddenly aware of Sydney's presence, and felt embarrassed at being caught so weak. I took a deep breath and continued to stare at the highway and lights passing my window. My vision blurred and I tried to rein it in.

"You okay?" Sydney asked warily.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied, my voice hoarse with hidden tears. She dropped it, leaving me to deal with it myself. I put a hand up to my forehead and wiped away the beads of liquid that betrayed me so much. I wasn't sure quite where my sweat mingled with the silent tears that I wasn't able to stop. It was just...killing me. When I had regained control, I looked behind me at Rose. Her face was still blank and I couldn't tell what was going on at all. I mean, she could at least give us some signs that they were alive or something. Was Tasha there? She was a good friend of mine, so maybe she'd help Lissa. Especially as Christian was her boyfriend. I watched Sydney take the selected turnings for about an hour or so. She didn't try to make small talk with me. She didn't bother giving me any anxious looks. And I was glad for that. I didn't want people worrying over me. In a way I was just like Rose. Never wanting people to worry, except for each other. I wondered if she cared at all. If she was bothered, or whether she really had moved on with Adrian. I hoped she had. I couldn't deal with her as well as al of this, no matter how much I yearned for her. At least Sydney seemed oblivious. I think. Rose had never told me about her and Sydney's relationship. When I was a Strigoi, she'd mentioned her, but I didn't know how much she knew. My family had never mentioned her before, so she probably wasn't from Russia either. Definitely American. One last glance back at Rose before I checked the GPS. We didn't have long to go. I would wake her up, or bring her back, or whatever soon. It was necessary. My stomach churned at the job I was now going to do.

**Aww, poor Dimitri. Sorry this chapter is so short. Most of it is in Lissa's head, so I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. Did you think the song worked? Was Dimitri's nightmare effective or annoying?**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks for your increasing support! I really appreciate it. I'm really sorry I can't update much more than once a fortnight, but my weekends are all jammed up and I'm stuck with school in the weeks, as well as writing for some of my easier stories. **** Can't wait until I'm a real author. **

I waited until I'd fully regained my composure before waking Rose. I couldn't let this purge her view of me. I wanted to make sure that she thought I was over it; I didn't want her to fear me. I couldn't allow that. Sydney kept shooting me worried glances which meant that she was sworn to secrecy. I took a deep breath and suddenly there was a honk and the car jolted across the road as another car caught up behind us. For a moment I thought it would be the guardians, but it was just some stupid idiot who shouldn't be allowed on the road. Sydney glared out of the window and Rose gasped.

"Sorry," Sydney apologised. "That jerk cut me off." Rose took a breath and I wondered what she was thinking. There was no reason to be mad at Sydney. At least, not in my eyes.

"Where are we?" Rose asked.

"Outskirts of Lexington." She pulled over and entered the address I gave her into the GPS. I shuddered as I realised we were only five miles away.

"Not a great part of town from what I hear," I told them. "Donovan runs a tattoo parlour that's only open at night. A couple of other Strigoi work with him. They get partiers, drunk kids...the kind of people that can easily disappear. The kind that Strigoi love." I thought back to the reputation Rose had when we first met, and about how everyone thought she was perpetually drunk. I wouldn't have let this happen to her. Ivashkov, on the other hand, I didn't mind so much, although I was worried about what that would do to _my_ reputation.

"Seems like the police would eventually notice that every time someone went out for a tattoo, they disappeared," Rose pointed out. I didn't mean to laugh. It really wasn't as amusing as Boris thought; In fact, it was quite sick. But I laughed anyway.

"Well the 'funny' thing is that they don't kill everyone that comes in. They actually give tattoos to some of them and let them go. They smuggle drugs through the place too."

"You sure know a lot." I steeled myself before making my response.

"I made it my business to know a lot, and Strigoi have to keep a roof over their heads too. I actually met Donovan once and got most of this straight from the source. I just didn't know where exactly he worked out of until now." Yes, it hadn't been a very pleasant experience. I'd caught him drinking from one of my subjects. He was lucky he was alive.

"Okay, so we've got the info on him. What do we do with it?" Time for my plan. I'd been thinking it up in the car and it was the best we could get. Not exactly safe, but things never were in our world.

"Lure him out. Send in a 'customer' with a message from me needing to meet him. I'm not the kind of person he can ignore-well, that he used to not-never mind." I couldn't be bothered to explain our relationship. I'd allowed him to live on certain conditions, which weren't exactly the most pleasant conditions. I hadn't wanted to come within a particular radius of him, so I wondered how he would react to my new condition. "One he's out, we get him to a place _we _ choose."

"I can do that."

"No, you can't."

"Why not?" Her voice was defensive. _Honestly,Rose,_ I thought. _You know me better than that. Have you forgotten your existence?_

"Because they'll know you're a dhampir the instant they see you. They'll probably smell it first. No Strigoi would have a dhampir working for him-only humans." There was a flash of realisation on her face which vanished as soon as Sydney dropped into our conversation.

"No!" she exclaimed. "I am not doing that!" I shook my head, desperately trying to think up other options but coming up blank.

"I don't like it either, but we don't have a lot of options. If he thinks you work for me, he won't hurt you." I told her this with as much confidence as I had so that she would be reassured, but I had a feeling it wasn't working.

"Yeah? And what happens if he doesn't believe me?"

"I don't think he can take the chance. He'll probably go with you to check things out, with the idea that if you're lying, they'll just kill you then." Her eyes bugged out of their sockets and she groaned.

"You can't send her in," Rose said. "They'll know she's an Alchemist. One of those wouldn't work for Strigoi either." I sighed. My plan had failed. Great. Whilst the others were thinking of ways to help Sydney, I stared out of the window and tried to picture Donovan's ugly face in my head. Just the thought of him made me mad. I couldn't wait to get my hands on him and make him pay for all the horrible things he did. For all the horrible things _I _did. Sydney once again broke me from my thoughts.

"When I was in the gas station, they had, like, one rack of make-up. We could probably cover up most of my tattoo with powder." Of course. Why hadn't I thought of that? We managed to cake it on her face so that she looked like she had skin problems over her tattoo and she grimaced. I stood back and watched as Rose 'worked her magic' as she liked to say. I was a guy; I didn't know about this stuff. We drove off to Donovan's and I clenched my fist. There was a deserted alleyway a couple of buildings away from his tattoo parlour where we left the car. I coached Sydney on Strigoi worshipping, but I knew this would be horrible for her. If she thought that _we_, the closest of our community to humans, were evil creatures of the night, speaking to Strigoi was going to be hell for her.

"You want to look awed," I explained, "Humans who serve Strigoi worship them-they're eager to please. Since they're around Strigoi so much, they aren't as startled or terrified. Still a little afraid, of course, but not as much as you look now." She gulped.

"I can't really help it." Poor girl. She thought we'd be hiding away in West Virginia, but now we twisted it and she had to talk to Strigoi. Rose gave her a quick hug, which, surprisingly, she returned.

"You can do this," Rose told her. "You're strong-and they're too afraid of Dimitri. Okay?" Sydney nodded, summoned as much courage as she had and turned towards the building. I squeezed my eyes shut before turning to Rose. "We may have just sent her to her death."

"I know-but we can't do anything now. You'd better get into position." I lifted her up on top of the building. It didn't seem like a very good idea, but Rose was determined to get her way, and apparently it was going to work. Once she was up, I slipped around the corner, hiding myself in the shadows and trying to keep my tall frame out of any form of light. We waited several agonising minutes, and I just hoped that Sydney was okay. I don't think I'd be able to deal with myself if I was still killing, even as a dhampir. Suddenly I heard footsteps. I glanced up at Rose who was resisting clutching her stomach, and then fully focused on the task ahead. Donovan's dark hair contrasted wildly against his pale skin, and he'd also brought two followers. I was hoping for just the one, but then, that was never the case in our lives. Seeing him, just within reach, made me want to kill all the Strigoi in the world right then and there. I just...couldn't...hold it in. I clenched my stake in my hand and waited for him to address me.

"Belikov?" he called. "Where are you?"

"I'm here," I responded, trying to make my voice as cold and calculating as possible. I walked out from the shadows. It was almost amusing to see the flash of recognition across his face before he tensed up at my true appearance.

"Dhampirs!" he spat. I saw a shadow cross the ground and realised Rose was probably jumping off of the roof. All I could do was hope that she was okay and that Sydney was running away as we'd told her to, as I was suddenly busy with two attackers. Donovan lunged for me, so I blocked his attack and kicked the other in the stomach. I flipped him over and scraped my stake over his chin. He yelled in agony so I twisted to face Donovan's guy and punched him in the chest. I slammed him against the wall. He yelled and I took pleasure in it. I glared at him. _Yeah, that's right. You call out. No-one can help you now. NO-ONE! You will PAY!_ I jammed my stake into his heart and his pleas began to fade. I staked him again and again and again. Each hit was like I had avenged one person. For each person I'd killed, for each person _he'd_ killed, I staked him. I wanted to rip his head and tear his limbs apart in the blind rage that I had now. I just couldn't-I was distracted by a call from Rose.

"Dimitri!" she yelled. "Come help me! I need you!" She was struggling with Donovan and he was trying to get at her neck. _Not my Roza, you idiot! _I'm_ in power around here. You are NOTHING against me!_ I knocked him out of the way and lined up my stake. "No! We need him! Don't kill him!" _Don't kill him? He's a Strigoi! That's going against everything that we know!_ A slap in the face caught my attention. Why was she distracting me? I was trying to kill him. "Don't kill him!" _Why? Why? Oh..._ I threw myself on top of Donovan, not needing Rose's help but allowing her to anyway. "When we were interrogating we used to-"

"Where is Sonya Karp?" I growled, shaking his shoulders so hard that his head looked like it was about to fall off.

"I don't-" Donovan began.

"Where is she? I know you know her!" My voice was rising into a roar and I caught a glimpse of Rose's shocked face. I didn't have time for this. Being close to him was too much for me. I was going to snap if he didn't give me the information soon.

"I-"

"_Where is she?"_ He stared back at me, eyes wide, and gaped at my rage. Had he underestimated me? Yes.

"Paris!" he cried. "She's in Paris!"

"Christ," Rose moaned. "We _cannot_ road trip to Paris."

"It's a small town-an hour away. There's this tiny lake. Hardly anyone on it. Blue house." Perfect. Just what we needed. Rose didn't seem to agree.

"Do you have an addr-" I pulled out my stake and jammed it into his heart. Blood spurted out and he gargled, fading away into non-existence. But I wasn't done. I staked him again. And again. And again. I staked him for the time he disobeyed me. I staked him for trying to kill my Roza. I staked him just because he was a Strigoi. Jut because _I could_. It didn't matter to me that his chest was now a pulpy crimson mess. He deserved to die worse than this. He deserved _more pain_. They all did! Every single one of them. "He's dead, Dimitri! He's dead. Stop this, please!" I would stake him until all that was left was a skeleton. I would stake him until the sun came up and frazzled his insides. I was going to-"He's dead! Let it go! _Please._ He's dead!" The sound of my Roza being so horrified, so sacred out of her wits, was too much for me to take. Who was hurting her? It took me a second to realise that it was me. _I_ was hurting her. I dropped the stake and collapsed to the floor. I wanted to curl up into a ball and stay there, let the sun fry me along with Donovan's remains. Erase me and pretend that this never happened. Take me back to when first met Rose, and make sure that I never hurt her again. My poor, poor Roza.

"It's over. You've done enough," she whispered.

"It's never enough, Roza," I sighed. "It'll never be enough."

"It is for now." She brought me into her arms and I rested my head on her shoulder, stooping to reach it because she was a foot shorter than me. I wrapped my arms around her, resisting the urge to pick her up and cry into her shoulder. I hadn't realised how much I needed this. I'd wanted my mother earlier on, but really, all I needed, was a bit of love. And, even if she was with Ivashkov, my Roza could give it to me. She would always be my Roza, whether she loved me or not. It wasn't like I deserved this. I shouldn't be here. I was defying all the rules we'd ever known, yet my Roza was here to comfort me. Impossibly, she made things just that tiny bit better.

"You're the only one. The only one who understands. The only one who saw how I was. I could never explain it to anyone...you're the only one. The only one I can tell his to..." Thank goodness nobody else knew me then. But how much I regretted not running straight into her arms after I was changed back, it was killing me. I should've done. After all she did for me, she deserved that one little bit of comfort. But she's moved on. She's with Ivashkov. I saw the bite. She closed her eyes, and, when they opened, the bored straight into mine so it felt as if that chocolaty colour was mixing with me. I wanted to delve into them, to lose myself in there, in my Roza.

"It's okay. It's okay now. I'm here. I'll always be here for you."

"I dream about them, you know. All the innocents I killed." Donovan wasn't an innocent. I killed him for them. I killed him for- She drew me back. "I keep thinking...maybe if I destroy enough Strigoi, the nightmares will go away. That I'll be certain I'm not on of them."

"No. You have to destroy Strigoi because they're evil. Because that's what we do. If you want the nightmares to go away, you have to _live_. That's the only way. We could've died just now. We didn't. Maybe we'll die tomorrow. I don't know. What matters is that we're alive now. Remember what you said earlier, back in Rubysville? Living is in the details. You've got to appreciate the details. That's the only way to defeat what the Strigoi did to you. The only way to bring back who you really are. You said it yourself: you escaped with me to see the world again. It's beauty."

"There's nothing beautiful here. Only death." Death is beautiful, in it's ways. Death of Strigoi, the feeling that the world is rid of yet another one, _that_ is beauty. But it didn't look beautiful. Not here. Not now, in this God awful alleyway full of blood. Nothing was beautiful here.

"That's only true if you let _them_ make it true. Find one thing. One thing that's beautiful. Anything. Anything that shows you're not one of them." I stared around me. There wasn't much to choose from. There was no moon, no stars. All that was left of the Strigoi was blood and rotting skin. The whole place was awful. I skimmed it and found...Roza. Her beauty was so exquisite she overpowered everything. The only reason that I hadn't noticed her beauty before was because I was so used to it. But now, with her staring into my eyes, that determined expression on her face, I couldn't think of anything more beautiful in the world. Put me in the middle of St Petersburg; Roza is still more beautiful. A field of flowers; Roza beats them all. But I knew that she wouldn't appreciate it if I told her that. She didn't want to know that I was still obsessed with her, that I couldn't move on when she had. I had to keep up with that stupid lie I'd told her in the church. So I chose one thing.

"Your hair," I breathed softly.

"What?" she gasped, touching a stray lock to check what was wrong with it. But nothing was wrong with it. I was jealous that she was able to touch it. I wanted to feel the silky softness, to brush out the knots with my fingers. To hold her in my arms and wonder how on earth I was blessed with such a wonderful person. But I couldn't do that. I had to settle for this instead.

"Your hair. Your hair is beautiful." She frowned but, after a glance around, decided that it was okay.

"You see? You're not one of them. Strigoi don't see beauty, only death. You found something beautiful. One thing that's beautiful." I reached out to touch the stray strands of hair and couldn't hold in the joy I felt at their feeling. I tried to let it overcome my despair, focusing on the silky feeling of Roza's hair. The Strigoi didn't see beauty. I could see Roza's beauty. I was past me how they couldn't see her beauty. Did this mean I wasn't a Strigoi? I could only hope.

"But is it enough?"

"It is for now," she told me, pressing a kiss to my forehead which I wished would stay there forever. "It is for now."

**So, yesterday I bought Spirit Bound and Blood Promise. I have said that I will do all the book in Dimitri's POV, but I'm doing them backwards because so many people have done the first few, but I don't think anyone else has done Last Sacrifice. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Okay, I've written aother chapter for you! I might squeeze another in over the weekend, I might not. However, I'm really behind on homework, so it's unlikely. ****Sorry. **

Sydney's expression when we got back to the car was a mixture of fear, exasperation, shock and disgust. Fear of what happened to us with the Strigoi. Exasperation at our dirty states. Shock at our dirty states. _Disgust_ at our dirty states. And we were pretty dirty. Rose had scrapes on her knees and I had a large gash across my shirt where I caught it with my stake, and the blood had stained my hands.

"I hope you don't stain the car," she grumbled once she'd recovered.

"Are we going to Paris?" Rose asked me, ignoring Sydney's complaint.

"Paris?"

"Not yet," I told them, leaning back in the seat. I took a deep breath and could feel Rose's eyes on me. I had to make sure she thought I was fine. I had to make sure she believe that I was okay, that she didn't know what I could see in my head. Because all I could feel was a grim glee at Donovan's death. I instead put on a fatigued face, which wasn't hard to do. That fight had taken a lot of energy out of us. "We should wait until daytime. We had to go for Donovan now, but if Sonya's got a house, she'll probably be there all day. Safer for us in daylight."

"How do you know he wasn't lying?" Sydney questioned, which would've been a good set of reasoning if we hadn't been...sure. Rose shivered.

"I don't think he was lying," she murmured, and I repressed the urge to squeeze my eyes together. Sydney drove us out of town as fast as possible and I told her to find a hotel. We were going to need some place to clean up. We checked into an average hotel where we got one room with two double beds. We decided that we really need to stay together now, what with Strigoi around. Rose sent me to the shower first, no matter how much I protested, and I relaxed a little when I felt the warm water rinsing away the dirt. I tried to let it rinse away my worries and cleanse my soul...of course, I'd never really believe in all that Zen stuff I taught Rose. That was just something I'd got from Galina...who I'd killed when I was a Strigoi. She was a Strigoi, too, she was...

No. I shook my head, spraying water everywhere, and got out of the shower. I was much more respectable looking now, not including my inner feelings. I pulled on the T-shirt and jeans that Sydney had given me before and let Rose go in the shower. Thankfully, she was quick. I didn't think I could stand being in here alone with Sydney much longer. She kept watching me, as if she knew what I was thinking. That wouldn't be good; I was either thinking about being a Strigoi or remembering how Rose would look in a shower. I tried to focus on the moment and what we had to do next, but my thoughts were always dragged back. _You're over her, Dimitri, _mother's voice chastised, but I was beginning to doubt myself. Was I really over her, or had that all been fake? Whichever it was, it had worked in driving Rose away. She was probably happy with Ivashkov now. After she came out, Sydney insisted on bandaging us up, even though we were most likely going to run into Strigoi tomorrow. According to her, this was all the more reason. She then turned on her laptop and pulled up a map of Paris. We squished around and I made sure Sydney was in between Rose and I. This was _not_ what needed now.

"Lots of creeks and rivers," Sydney mumbled, searching the screen. "Not much in the way of lakes."

"Do you think that's it?" Rose asked, pointing at a blue blob on the screen that was obviously not a lake.

"Maybe. Ah, there's another pond. That could be a suspect to, or-oh! Right here?" I glanced at where her slender fingers had found Martin Lake. It seemed to be the only official lake on the map. I sat back and yawned.

"That looks like the most likely option," I told them. "If not, I don't think it'll take long to drive around the other ones."

"That's your plan? Just drive around and look for a blue house?" Rose and I exchanged a look. Of course that was our plan.

"It's more solid than most of our plans," Rose allowed with a shrug. I thought back to other plans we'd had: we had driven after Lissa, following Rose's mind. She'd gone after Mason, Eddie and Mia without thinking, taking Christian with her. We'd all done a massive attack on the Strigoi on the caves...our plans _usually_ worked, but not without casualties. I made sure the other two went to sleep. Rose wasn't so happy, but Sydney seemed happy to comply. I definitely needed it. I flopped down on the bed and fell asleep instantly, hoping now nightmares would come. I didn't think I could deal with anymore today, but, of course, an encounter with Strigoi wasn't really going to help me. It was a different one today, however.

_I stood in the middle of Baia with Donovan at my side. Our feud was over and he was my slave now. Nothing could stop me from beating him if I wanted to. The whip tucked in my duster belt felt very significant against my leg. We walked past all the familiar houses that I'd grown up with, past the beautiful church, until we reached the house I wanted. My best meal, this would be. Rose wasn't coming; she'd given up on me. Everyone had given up on me, but I hadn't forgotten them. The door opened when I knocked and I kept my eyes closed._

"_Hello?" the little boy at the door asked me. "Who are you?" I glanced down and looked at what was a mini me. I couldn't help myself; I smiled. His eyes widened at the sight of my fangs, but I was too fast to let him scream. I snapped his neck and quickly drank his blood, tossing his tiny body aside when I was done. Somebody hurried down the stairs, moaning about a draft, and stood in shock when she saw me. He pregnant body was swelled up, and I wondered whether the baby would die with her as I drank her blood. Hopefully so. I didn't feel any remorse at killing my family. This was how I survived. They were all over, I thought. Donovan simply sat and watched as I teased him with the blood around my , a frail voice called me from the kitchen. It beckoned me, causing me to automatically go to the old woman sat in the middle of the room._

_Babushka._

"_Dimka," she murmured. "You came back." I came back indeed. I leant in to kill her, but her hand sent me flying backwards. "What did you do, Dimka? Why did you do it?" And suddenly, my view changed. I was unable to see the dust motes flying around, but the room was exactly the same. However, when I turned, all I could see was blood. There was so much blood. It was the blood of my family, the people I'd killed. I killed them. Donovan, still a Strigoi, turned to me, grinning evilly. I got up and grabbed the stake that Babushka already had ready for me. She knew what I would do.I leapt towards Donovan and stabbed him with my stake. Once for Paul. Once for Karolina. Once for Sonya. Once for Viktoria. Once for Zoya. Once for several times again. Yet he didn't die. Instead his face morphed into Rose's. She reached out with a smirk on her face and staked me. NO! I tried to cry out. I'M NOT A STRIGOI! I'M A DHAMPIR! But I was at a loss. I soon found myself drifting towards the fiery depths of hell._

I shot up, out of the bed. A glance over at Rose and Sydney's peaceful forms was the only thing that stopped me from letting out my anger then and there. Instead, I flopped back onto the bed and put my head in my hands. My dreams...they were getting worse...they, I just, I couldn't...ugh. I'd never felt so helpless. I'd never felt so _awful_. I was so glad I hadn't decided to massacre my family as a Strigoi. I looked over at the alarm, which still had 45 minutes until it went off. I straightened myself down and quickly washed my face, removing all traces off my nightmare. I tied to smile at my reflection in the mirror, hoping the haunted look would go away if I looked happy. But it was just wrong. I went downstairs for a coffee. Even at quarter past six in the morning, it was already full of people. A kind looking woman came up to me.

"Can I help you, sir? The breakfast comes free with the room. We have many things on offer this morning," she told me.

"No, thank you, I'm-" I started to say, but then changed my mind, "actually, where can I get a coffee?" She showed me to the dispenser, where I filled my mug. I glugged it down quickly, not minding the scalding feeling in my throat. I grabbed another mugful and took it with me back up to the room, where I sat in the small armchair by the window. I stared out at the sun that was rising. I wouldn't be able to look at it if I was Strigoi. I'm obviously fine. I also wouldn't be able to see Rose's beauty, right?

The tone of the alarm clock blared and I reached out to stop it. It wasn't very friendly to people who were just waking up. Rose and Sydney got themselves ready, which involved a lot of dragging themselves out of bed. Rose shooed me off to get some food while she and Sydney got ready. I went back downstairs. I passed the desk and went outside into the slightly cooler air. Crossing the road, I entered the hardware store. I didn't like what I was about to buy, but it was necessary. Sonya wasn't going to be giving any information willingly. I grabbed a chain and went to buy it.

"Towing a car?" the cashier asked me with a grin.

"Yes, actually," I lied, trying to be friendly. I paid him and went back to the breakfast area in the hotel. Nobody gave me any weird looks about the chain.

"Back again?" the woman I'd seen earlier asked me with a smile.

"Yes, for breakfast now." I grabbed another coffee and a box of doughnuts. Rose would like that. And Sydney, hopefully.

Not long after, we were all satisfied and on the road, raring to go and interrogate some Strigoi. There was an awkward silence, but, Rose being Rose, she always knew how to break it. It was her casual use of her next words that got me,

"So, Victor Dashkov might be joining us soon." Well. That was a new one. Sydney's eyes widened and she almost jerked us off the road.

"_What?_ That guy who escaped?" she exclaimed.

"Why is Victor Dashkov joining us?" I asked slowly, unsure where she was going with this.

"Well, it's kind of a funny story..." Rose began telling us the story of how she broke Victor out of prison to find his brother, Robert Doru, a spirit user. And, to be honest, I was surprised I hadn't figured it out earlier. Of course Rose and Lissa had broken him out. But who was the other person that helped them...

Suddenly, I realised why they'd done it. Robert Doru had claimed to have saved a Strigoi before. So Rose and Lissa went to break him out to find this so they could save me. Of course it wasn't Lissa's idea, which meant that Rose had organised the whole thing. Oh, God. Rose _had _ gone to extreme measures to save me. I couldn't believe I'd been so bad to her over it, as well. "Look, whether he can help or not, this is our chance to catch him. That's a good thing, right?" If we ever managed to clear Rose's name, she still wouldn't be in a very good position. This wouldn't help anything if it leaked out.

"It's an issue we'll deal with...later," I warned her. She knew what that voice meant. There was no more talk until we reached the lake. The blue house was easy to spot. It was the only blue house there. So obvious.

"Well, it's a blue house, but is it hers? I don't see a mailbox or anything," Sydney wondered.

"Yeah, this is her house," Rose confirmed. I'd never met Sonya Karp, but she'd taught Rose before. I wondered what she thinking about it. We got out of the car and I walked around the house. "What are you doing? She might see you."

"Those are black-out curtains. They aren't letting in any light, so she isn't going to see anything. It also means she most likely spends most of her time on the house's main floor, instead of a basement," I explained, using my information.

"That's good news for us." I struggled not to think of Strigoi and basements. Last time that happened, Rose had been trapped and almost killed...

"I'll scout the other side." I headed off, searching for any form of entry or weapon. I felt somebody touch my arm.

"Let me. I'll sense any Strigoi-not that she's going outside, but, well just in case." I wondered what her interior motives were. Why was she risking herself when she knew that I could do it? Didn't she think I was capable?

"Okay. Be careful." I stayed where I was and waited as Rose slid around the corner. A few minutes later, she hurried back.

"A patio door and two windows. All curtained. There's also a wooden deckchair, a shovel and a wheelbarrow."

"Any pitchforks?" They could be useful for battle.

"Unfortunately, no, but there's a big-ass rock sitting outside the fence. It'd be hard to get into the yard, though. We're better off using it to help us climb over. No gate in the fence. She's made a fortress." I nodded and then handed the chain to Sydney, quickly giving her our plan. She watched us nervously and I wondered if she was truly worried for us. We were people after all.

I grabbed the 'big-ass rock' and stood on it, making it even easier for me to see over. I boosted Rose over the fence and followed behind her with a muted _thud_. Sonya probably heard us with her advanced Strigoi hearing, so we went in full action. Yeah, not a solid plan. I picked up the shovel and smashed it into the glass twice, watching as the cracks appeared in the smooth surface. Rose rammed the wheelbarrow in as a final blow and we crept inside the house, ducking to avoid the glass. Sunlight spilled into the room, another weapon if we needed it. There was nobody in this room, however, so we explored the other rooms. When we found a living room, a Strigoi with curly auburn hair was glaring at us, fangs bared. She leapt towards me, falling for the stupid mistake that all Strigoi make about Rose not being a threat. I struck her on the shoulder with the shovel, holding it as high as I could. I was hoping to get her head with it or something. We circled and I wondered what Rose was doing in this time. Scouting the house? Turns out, no, she was just waiting for a time to attack. She slammed into Sonya's side and was thrown down instantly. She moved to the side and I ran, quickly stepping back when I realised it was a feint. I couldn't believe I'd fallen for it. She shoved me up against the wall and I knew that she was definitely going to kill me if I didn't do something. I struggled against her, trying to pry her fingers from my throat and use my extra height and weight. I tried to think like Rose...Maybe I could flatten her? No. Thinking like Rose wasn't a good plan. Her mind was extremely twisted. Rose ran towards Sonya and plunged the stake into her right shoulder blade. Sonya shrieked in agony and flung Rose away. I didn't see quite where she'd landed, as I'd already started my next attack, but it made a _crash_ that didn't sound pleasant. I knocked Sonya to the ground, grabbed the stake that she'd shaken off and pushed it against her throat. She was fairly strong and Rose, sensing I needed help, came to help me.

"Get Sydney," I growled. "The chain..." Without needing any more instructions she hurried off. I wouldn't be able to keep Sonya for long, due to mental and physical strength. I pressed the stake against her neck, piercing it but not decapitating her. It was going against everything I knew, not killing a Strigoi. I needed to kill her, to rid the world of this evil former Moroi. It was_ wrong_. Rose got back quickly and helped me restrain Sonya.

"We need her...remember, we need her," she told me smoothly. I nodded, trying to focus on her words. Sydney appeared, dragging the heavy chain behind her. We wrapped it around Sonya and bound her to the recliner that we'd spotted. I kept my stake at her neck and, once Rose was done, glanced up at her. We new what we had to do now. "Time for questioning."

**So, there you go. Hope you enjoyed it!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Yeah, I know, I didn't put up another for a while. Sorry. And, just a recommendation: If you have Facebook, you should join the Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir's Diary page. It's made by two really nice teenage girls from Australia and we do roleplays, trivia, Picture sharing, Fan Of The Week and they write the diary in the notes section. Tomorrow we're having a party because they got 500 fans!**

_Well_, I thought, after about an hour of trying and failing. _What now?_ I'd tried shouting at her. We'd tried pressing the stake further in. We'd even tried faking killing her. Rose tried to coax it out of her. We'd tried threats of ruining her house, but, of course, she had no connection to it. She didn't care. So we were going to leave her to starve and get weak, hopefully before we did. The questions we threw at her weren't even proper questions. We didn't have a very secure plan. It was just things like: is there another Dragomir? Who is Jane Doe? Where is the last Dragomir? Unfortunately, Sonya had realised that we needed her too much and refused to talk, knowing that she wouldn't be killed. I tried my best to restrain my anger and not just kill her, but we were all getting a bit frustrated. Rose was leaning against a wall and Sonya was watching us menacingly. I held out my stake in a threatening pose but I knew Sonya wasn't going anywhere soon. The eerie silence was suffocating us. I glanced over at Rose and noticed crimson leaking from her forehead. It was obscured by her hair but it actually looked pretty serious.

"What's that on your head, Rose?" I wondered.

"Huh?" She reached up and brushed the hair out of the way. I tried to stop myself from growling at Sonya. How dare she do this to my Roza! She shrugged when her fingers came away covered in blood. "I'm fine." I glanced over at Sydney who still had wide eyes. I doubted being in the same room as a tortured Strigoi was comfortable for her. She needed to be up and doing something.

"Go lay her down and clean it up. Don't let her sleep until we can figure out if it's a concussion."

"No, I can't. I can't leave you alone with her..." Typical Rose, caring about me when she's in danger.

"I'm fine. Rest up so that you can help me later. You're no good to me if you're just going to fall over." Harsh but true. Sydney led her away and I wondered where they would go. What was the house like? Galina's estate had literally been that; an estate. There were bedrooms, bathrooms, everything.

Sonya focused her beady eyes on me, probably analysing my strength to see how easy it would be for her to break free. I held my stake out in a warning position and puffed up my chest. I crossed my arms and didn't take my eyes off her, hardening my jaw and glaring. I could do it _all_ day if she wanted to.

After about fifteen minutes, Sydney came back downstairs.

"How's Rose?" I asked her.

"In Lissa's head. I think it's important. Rose looked really worried," she reported. I clenched my muscles so that I wouldn't run up there to help her. She wasn't in any danger. We were.

"Is it all cleaned up?"

"Yeah, I cleaned it up. Rose wouldn't let me put a plaster on it." I felt my lips twist into a half-smile. Of course she wouldn't. Sydney gave me a puzzled look but I waved my hand at her. She curled up in the corner.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" I murmured.

"I don't really want to sleep here," she mumbled, her eyes flicking towards Sonya. I grumbled. The silence was uncomfortable. Sydney's fear was palpable and Sonya was watching my every movement. I had to be on my guard the whole time, but I couldn't stop my mind from wandering. What was going on back at Court? Had they got any leads yet? I tried to think why anybody would murder Tatiana aside from political reasons. She didn't have a husband or anything, so it couldn't be jealousy over that. Maybe it was jealousy over the throne. People had been suggesting Victor Dashkov, and I wondered if that could possibly be true. Probably not. He was evil, but definitely not stupid. He wouldn't sneak back into Court after breaking out (or being broken out) of a high-security jail. He was definitely going to stay out of the way, until the came to us. Rose said he was going to be coming with his spirit using brother, which should be interesting. Spirit user compulsion was as strong as that of a Strigoi. Maybe I could incapacitate them both and Rose could grab them and...I sighed. Rose was always part of my plan. How had I been so stupid as to think I could live without her in my life? She's obviously moved on, but maybe she'd forgive me enough to be friends. Surely, after all that talk about forgiving me she'd be willing to do that? But it got me thinking. It wasn't just my time as a Strigoi she'd have to forgive. I'd made a mess of things afterwards, as well. If I could turn back the hands of time and run into her arms after being restored, I would do it a million times over. But, no, Dimitri can't do love right. I had to tell her that I didn't love her. I had to push the most important person away. Why am I such an idiot?

There was a sharp rapping on the door and I froze. Sonya turned to the door quizzically. I analysed our options. I couldn't leave Sonya alone with Sydney, so I would have to stay. Who could be at the door? It was sunny outside, so no Strigoi. I glanced at Sydney and she got up warily. Edging her way to the door, she pulled it open and hid behind it.

"Hello?" a croaky voice called out. "Oh, look, Robert. There's no one there."

Victor Dashkov.

I saw Sydney flinch as she recognised the person in the doorway.

"Victor?" an anxious voice called. "If there's Strigoi here..."

"No, no, Robert. They'll be here. I doubt Rosemarie and her cradle robber would have left us. She values our information too much." I bit back a growl and they stepped in. Sydney shivered and kept as silent as possible. "Belikov?"

"Yes," I replied stiffly.

"Ah, there you are. See, Robert, they _are_ here." He came into the living room with a big grin on his face and then began to watch the room warily. He scanned every inch of it whilst Robert simply stayed focused on Sonya, eyes bugged out. I saw Sydney slip away upstairs, probably to tell Rose, and I continued to watch. If I stayed with my stake at Sonya's neck, I could reach out and grab the brothers if they tried anything. They obviously came willingly, so they wouldn't want to leave, and if I watched them, I could throw my stake at Sonya whilst grabbing the two of them. That would work, wouldn't it? I sighed again. Where was Rose?

**Sorry it's short, but I couldn't fill up Lissa's head with Dimitri's nightmares or something random like that.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay, guys, here's chapter 18!**

There was an awkward silence that was almost suffocating me after that. Nobody spoke, but Sonya now turned her glare to the Moroi. She'd probably known about Victor's imprisonment. I was proof that word spreads among Strigoi.

Soon, I heard the sounds of my avenging angel sprinting down the stairs. I watched the door where the brothers stood whilst keeping my stake against Sonya's neck, occasionally raking it across her skin. She stayed silent, which wasn't helpful.

"So," Rose addressed them, putting her hands in her perfect hips. _Godammit, Dimitri. You gave her up._ Why did I have to keep reminding myself of this? "You managed to find us."

"There's one lake in this town," Victor remarked nastily. "One blue house. Maybe you had trouble with those directions, but for the rest of us, it wasn't that difficult."

"Well, if you're so smart, what's your plan now?"

"Since _you're_ so smart, I assumed you'd have already obtained the needed information." Rose gestured at Sonya.

"She's not exactly forthcoming." He finally turned away from torturing Rose with his snide words and spared a glanced for the Strigoi.

"Sonya Karp. You've changed since I last saw you."

"I'm going to kill you all and consume you one by one," Sonya growled. "Normally I'd start with the human and work up to the Moroi, but..." She pointed her glare at Rose and I. I refused to flinch or anything. I stayed the stoic guardian I was meant to be. "I think I'll save you two for last and drag out your suffering. You've annoyed me the most."

"Do all Strigoi go through the same boot camp and learn all the same threats? It's a wonder you don't cackle too," Rose snapped, before turning back to Victor, "See? Not that easy. We've tried everything. Torturing it out, beating it out. Sydney went through the names of all her relatives. No reaction." Victor turned.

"So, your pet Alchemist," he muttered, examining her. I wanted to congratulate her for not even moving. I couldn't imagine how freaked out she would be at the moment. "Young. But of course she would be. I imagine it's the only way you could manipulate her into this little escapade."

"I'm here by choice," Sydney replied, standing her ground. "No one manipulated me." *cough cough* Abe *cough cough*

"Look, if you wanted to keep torturing me with your not-funny comments, you could've just kept invading my dreams," Rose told him. "If you don't have anything useful to offer, then get out of here and let us wait until hunger weakens Sonya." I braced myself, knowing that Rose would go after them if I ran and I would _have_ to stay here.

"We can help," Victor finally explained. "Your methods were destined to fail. If you want answers, there's only one way to-" He was cut off by a ruckus on the chair that was Sonya. She jumped up and began to break the chain. I was on her instantly, pinning her down before she could break out any further. Rose joined me a second later and together we pinned her back on to the recliner. Our eyes met and a million thoughts flashed through. How would we keep her down now? If we couldn't keep around, we also had innocents around that Sonya could use. We were both weak and weary, not strong enough to keep her down much longer. I raked my stake across her skin more but that only made her flail around more. She growled and shrieked with rage and agony. I wondered what the neighbours thought of this.

"No!" Rose yelled. I whipped my head up. What had hurt her? I would murder Victor if he tried something. However, in the corner of my eye, a shape that was Robert holding a stake came running towards us. He was going to kill her. I couldn't put my arm over Sonya's chest without the stake going into my arm, so the opening was perfect for Robert.

The stake plunged into her chest with as much force as a Moroi could have. I wondered if Rose was surprised at Robert's abilities as I was, but that thought was soon dismissed as I took in the sight before me. Sonya screamed, piercing the air. A brilliant light was filling the room, blinding me. A power I couldn't see flung me backwards and I reached out for the wall to stop myself from flying any further forward. The floor shook and I wondered if we were having an earthquake of something. It would be just our luck, wouldn't it? But, no. Everything stopped in a flash. I scrambled to my feet dizzily and saw Rose had been flung against the wall. Robert was gasping for breath on the floor and Victor rushed over to help him. But Sonya was still in the armchair. Her body was still bound in thick chains and her auburn hair bobbed when she adjusted her position, but she was holding the stake. She raised her eyes up in wonder and I gasped. Her eyes were ocean blue. No longer red. Her pale skin now had the colour of Moroi.

"Unbelievable," Rose murmured. Sonya Karp was no longer a Strigoi. I stared, gaping at Sonya's new appearance. It had been different when it happened to me. The power had been brighter, more forceful, but still different. We were all so consumed with our shock that it shocked me when she started screaming. Sonya's tears dripped down her face as she wept. Without thinking, I rushed over to her and ripped off the chains. I sat on the recliner and she curled into me, burying her face in my shirt. I put my arm around her automatically and started murmuring small lies in her ear. She began to calm down a bit.

"What are you doing?" Sydney exclaimed. "Don't release her!"

"It's okay, it's okay," Rose told her. "She's not a Strigoi. Look. Look at her. She's a Moroi."

"She can't be. I just saw her."

"It's what happened to Dimitri. Exactly the same. You don't think he's a Strigoi, do you? You trust him." There was a pause before Victor sneered,

"What, no witty quips now? You should be happy. We've given you what you wanted. You want answers from Sonya Karp? Go get them. They've certainly come at a high price."

"NO!" I exclaimed. "Are you crazy?" Stupid question. Of course he was. "Didn't you see what just happened?" How could he think that she would answer anything now?

"Yes, I noticed."

"She's in no condition to answer anything! She's in shock. Leave her alone." I knew what it was like, being questioned as soon as I was a dhampir again. It's a difficult thing, getting used to it.

"Don't act like _she's_ the one who's suffering here. You'll be alright. Everything will be alright." The last bit murmured to Victor. I sighed. I hated Victor even more now, if that was even possible. Rose and Victor exchanged some quiet conversation as I continued to try and soothe Sonya. It wasn't long before she fell asleep. I picked up her up carefully.

"She needs to rest," I told them. "Believe me, you have no idea what's going on inside her at the moment."

"Oh, I believe you," Rose said.

"You're idiots," Victor snapped. "Both of you." I didn't like being called an idiot. Especially not by Victor Dashkov, of all people. I glared at him.

"No interrogation yet." Rose nodded in agreement and I headed upstairs. I found the bedroom and laid Sonya down in her bed, still stroking her hair. I stayed with her until her crying halted and then switched over the pillow for one that wasn't soaked. Seeing her like this, it reminded me of when I was transformed. I sat down, leaning back against the wall, with my arms crossed around my legs. She was probably terrified, feeling absolutely guilty, grateful. The flood of emotions was always hard to block, and I knew that sleep would definitely help her. But Sonya didn't seem quite as conflicted as I was. Probably because she didn't torture the person she loved.

I picked myself back up, pulled myself together, and headed downstairs. Robert was dozing on the recliner.

"She's sleeping too," I informed them. "The transformation...it's difficult." Understatement of the century.

"I don't think we should leave Sonya alone," Rose decided. I wondered why Victor was smirking. "Someone should stay with her in case she wakes up." I scanned her carefully and she looked me directly in the eyes. What was she planning?

"You're right. Do you mind sitting with her?" I asked Sydney.

"She doesn't know me. It might make things worse when she wakes up. Besides...I don't really feel that comfortable with someone who was a monster five minutes ago," Sydney told me, disgusted.

"She's not Strigoi! She's absolutely, completely Moroi again! I know it's hard to believe, but she really has changed."

"I'll stay with her then," Rose offered up.

"No, no. Sydney's right about one thing: Sonya might be confused. It's better is someone's there who understands what's happened." I stepped forward to Rose and murmured, "Keep an eye on them. Robert's down right now, but might recover sooner than we think." I knew she knew I meant the brothers.

"I know." I was about to go, when something I'd been wanting to ask her popped up.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"That...was that what it was like when Lissa changed me?"

"More or less."

"I didn't realise...it was..." what? Nothing could describe that. "The way that light filled the room, the way she changed. Seeing that life emerge from death...it was..."

"Beautiful?" Of course. Rose could always find the words to say. I nodded.

"Life like that...you don't-no, you _can't _waste it." Being given that life, seeing it happen to someone else, I realised just how beautiful it really was. Why waste it moping about what could've been?

"No. You can't."

I went back upstairs and crept into the bedroom. Sonya was still sleeping and it gave me time to think. The brightness seemed to be etched into my brain. I couldn't forget how incredible it had looked. It was a miracle. Why had I been wasting a miracle this entire time? Hardly anybody gets a miracle happen to them, so what was I doing now, wishing somebody had killed me?

When I was done with my musings, I saw a bookshelf in the corner of the room. Sonya as pretty whacked, so I browsed her book collection. My face lit up when I found,

"Western novels!" I whispered gleefully. I sat down on the hard wooden floor, flipped open the first page and lost myself as a sherrif in the old West.


	19. Chapter 19 and 20

**Wow! 100 reviews! Thanks sooo much guys! Who would've thought that you'd have such a great reaction to Dimitri's Western fetish? And, oh, chapter 19 is all Lissa's head, so this technically chapter 20.**

I was half way through chapter 3 when I heard Sonya stir. I hadn't got very far through this book, as I'd gone downstairs to check on Roza while she was sleeping. Her hair was spread beautifully across the pillow, my hands ached to touch it. Her fierce features were peaceful and I sighed. I couldn't stay long because Sydney was there, so I'd trudged back up, ignoring the swell in my heart. I finished the quote, which so reminded me of Rose; _"That is Kat. If for one hour in a year something eatable were to be had in some one place only, within that hour, as if moved by a vision, he would put on his cap, go out and walk directly there, as though following a compass, and find it."_ I chuckled and then Sonya properly woke up. She dragged a hand over her bleary eyes and blinked down at me.

"Morning," I greeted her. She squinted and then shook her head for a bit, running a hand through her messy auburn hair. I peered out of the window and noticed Sydney going on an errand run. Good, I was dying for coffee.

"Was yesterday all completely real?" she murmured, puzzled.

"Look at yourself. I'd say it was, wouldn't you?"

"But, oh, all the _people_ I killed! I was Strigoi for three years!" The tears started falling silently down her cheeks and she was shaking violently. I sat on the bed and put an arm around her, murmuring in Russian to her. It didn't have the same effect as it did on Rose.

"It's okay. Everything's okay. It wasn't you." I_t wasn't you._ I'd said it to Roza before that night in the cabin. She'd said it to me so many times since then. I sighed. "You were Strigoi. You followed your natural Strigoi instincts."

"Natural Strigoi instincts? Kill, kill kill? That's in me?" Her voice rose up an octave and I realised I'd taken the wrong path.

"No, well, Yes, but you couldn't help yourself. You had to survive, stay alive, and it didn't matter to you then. Look at you now. Strigoi can't feel emotion apart from hate." She sighed again and wiped the tears away with the corner of the duvet. She crossed her legs and I removed my arm. She turned, looking up at the doorway.

"Rose?" she asked tentatively.

"It's good to see you again," Rose replied politely. I gave her a warning glance that she probably missed. "Sydney went for groceries. She also stayed up so I could sleep last night."

"I know," I answered honestly. "I got up once to check on you." I smiled slightly and she flushed.

"You can rest too. Get some breakfast and then I'll keep an eye on everything. I have it on good authority that Victor's going to have car trouble. Also, that Robert really likes Cheerios, so if you want some, you're out of luck. He doesn't seem like the sharing type." I smiled even wider at her mood-lifter. I didn't like Cheerios anyway. Sonya lifted her head.

"There's another spirit user here," she whispered urgently. "I can feel it. I remember him. It's not safe. We're not safe. You shouldn't have us around."

"Everything's fine," I told her softly. "Don't worry."

"No. You don't understand. We...we're capable of terrible things. To ourselves, to others. It's why I changed, to stop the madness. And it did...except, it was worse. In its way. The things I did..." I couldn't let her go back down that road. I put an arm around her again.

"It wasn't you," Rose told her. You were controlled by something else."

But I chose it. _Me_. I made it happen."

"That was spirit. It's hard to fight. Like you said, it can make you do terrible things. You weren't thinking clearly. Lissa battles with the same thing all the time."

"Vasilisa? Yes, of course. Vasilisa has it too. Did you help her? Did you get her out of there?"

The pieces fell together. Sonya had asked them to go, to save Lissa from spirit. Of course.

"We did. We left and came back, and, uh, were able to stop what was hunting her. And you can help her too. We need to know if-"I sensed where she was going immediately and wasn't going to allow that. Sonya wasn't in the right state of mind for that. I gave her yet another warning look.

"No," I told her sharply. "Not yet."

"But-"

"_Not yet._" There was no way of conveying how it felt, to be back from a Strigoi and feel the guilt come crushing down. Sonya needed to adjust. Rose shot me a glare but was smart enough to shut up. I wondered what sort of expression was on my face.

"Can I see my flowers?" Sonya wondered, breaking the tension. "Can I go outside and see my flowers?" I glanced at Rose, who had a knowing look on her face. Personally, I didn't get the obsession with flowers, but I appeased her anyway.

"Of course," I told her.

"Why did you grow flowers when you were...like you were?" Rose just _had_ to ask, didn't she? Sonya paused for a moment to think about her answer. I honestly wasn't sure if she knew.

"I've always grown flowers," she answered blatantly.

"I know. I remember. They were gorgeous. The ones here are gorgeous too. Is that why...I mean, did you just want a pretty garden, even as a Strigoi?" It reminded me of how I read Westerns when I was a Strigoi.

"No. I never really thought about _pretty_. They were...I don't know. Something to do. I'd always grown my flowers. I had to see if I still could. It was like...a test of my skills, I guess." Rose had been right. Strigoi couldn't see beauty, couldn't feel any sort of proper emotion. I looked up and met her warm brown eyes. They were full of a hidden emotion, something I wasn't able to unlock. It was odd. I'd always been able to read Roza. What had I done to change that? But, of course, I already knew.

We trudged downstairs and brought Sonya into the living room. Sonya and Robert both froze as they met each other.

"Up and around," Victor muttered. "Have we found out what we need yet?" I gave him an even harsher glanced than I had given to Rose earlier because, unlike her, I _hated_ Victor Dashkov with a vengeance.

"Not yet."

"You broke my door," Sonya accused us. I glanced to where she was looking and recalled us breaking in. I was about to apologise when Rose said,

"Collateral damage." I rolled my eyes. Of course. Sonya opened what was left of her door and stepped outside with a gasp. I remembered that time I'd been out in the sun, the feeling of it on my back, no longer having to worry about burning to a crisp. Sonya was completely unaware of our presence beside her as she was too busy staring up at the perfect, cloudless blue sky.

"It's so beautiful," Sonya murmured in awe. "Isn't it? Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?"

"Beautiful," Rose repeated, faced the other way so she didn't noticed that I'd been staring at her. Because I _had_ seen something more beautiful, something that I was completely incapable of keeping. Sonya wandered around her garden, admiring the plants she'd created and how different they were in the sunlight. I had to admit, they were beautiful. Burst of exotic colour bloomed from every inch of soil. Butterflies rested on the inside, brushing the pollen onto their legs and fluttering their fragile wings. It was awe-worthy. "So different..." she would keep murmuring. "So different in the sun. These don't open at night! Do you see it? Do you see the colours? Can you smell that?" I had an uncanny sense that Rose was probably getting bored, but I was almost into it as much as Sonya, recalling that first moment, before the guilt hit, that I was able to step into the sun. Able to smell the sweetness, see the beauty.

Sonya eventually settled into one of the patio chairs, completely oblivious to the fact that the sun was probably hurting her sensitive Moroi skin. Rose turned to me.

"Dimitri, I think you should get some sleep. You were watching over Sonya all night and I _know_ that you're tired. Sydney told me to, she noticed before I had."

"That's smart," I answered with a smile. "One Sonya's able to talk, we'll need to make a move. Sydney's turning into a battle mastermind.

"Hey, she's not in charge here. She's just a soldier."

"Right. Sorry Captain." I hadn't noticed that I'd been tracing her face until she gasped.

"General." I gave Sonya a quick goodbye before escaping into the shade of the house. I headed towards the living room where Rose's 'bed' was unmade, naturally. I shifted the covers around before covering myself with them. They smelt of her scent. I held the pillow to my face, trying to capture it in my nose and imprint it in my brain. It couldn't compare to the feeling of burying my face in her hair, with her arms around my waist, but it was close enough for now. Eventually I fell asleep.

It seemed like only seconds later when Rose yelled, "Dimitri!" I shot up instantly, ripped back the covers and sprinted to the door, squinting against the sudden bright light. Sydney was pressed up against the wall like a terrified rabbit, and Victor was watching the scene from afar. Rose had a rather angry Sonya pinned to the ground and Robert was standing a little way away from them. A chair shot towards them, and I realised Robert was probably using telekinesis. The chair was obviously aimed for Sonya, but it hit Rose in the back instead. _How _dare_ he hurt her? _I ran towards Robert, more from rage than anything else, and attempted to pin him to the ground. I felt Victor trying feebly to pry me off of Robert, but he was an idiot for thinking he could pull me, a 6 foot 7 fully-trained Russian guardian, off of a tiny Moroi. Vines reached towards us, threatening to entangle Robert, and I knew Sonya was behind them.

"Get him inside!" Rose yelled. "Get him away from her!" I had absolutely no idea what this fight was about, but spirit users were too dangerous for me to argue. I dragged Robert to the door by his arms, not caring if it hurt him. He hurt Roza. Victor followed me inside after Robert had calmed down, finally away from Sonya. I lead them upstairs, knowing that there was no way they could get out without us noticing, and headed back down again. Rose had brought Sonya inside and she was now sobbing into her shoulder on the couch. Rose and I both failed at calming down, and I wondered if my Russian mutterings really worked, or whether Rose was just appeasing me. Sydney clasped Sonya's hand, absurdly, and we went out into the doorway.

"Rose, what happened?" I asked her.

"Well, I kind of asked Sonya about the Dragomir-No, don't give me that look, I was doing it carefully. It was when Victor got impatient that he started to annoy me, so I kind of left the subject. But Robert tried to compel her into talking. But, 'cause Sonya's also a spirit user, she didn't comply. In fact, it just made her really, really angry. I don't know how much was spirit darkness, but it's probably worse after that mental battle."

"I told you it wasn't time! What were you thinking? She's too weak!"

"You call that weak? And, hey, I was doing fine until Victor and Robert got involved and things went to hell." I involuntarily stepped forward, trying to let her know that _I_ needed to take charge here. Although she wasn't my student anymore, I was her elder and the only one who could understand this situation. This didn't seem to be getting through to her. I hated being mad at her, but it was the only way.

"They should never have gotten involved. This is you, acting irrational again, jumping in foolishly with no thought of the consequences." Rose took another angry step towards me.

"Hey, I was trying to make progress here. If being rational is sitting around and doing therapy, then I'm happy to jump over the edge. I'm not afraid to get in the game."

"You have no idea what you're saying," I growled, my voice lower than intended. "This may have set us back."

"This has set us _forward_. We found out that she knows about Eric Dragomir. The problem is she promised not to tell anyone about this baby."

"Yes, I promised," Sonya's voice came from the sofa. "I promised." It was only then that I noticed how there was hardly any space between Rose and I. Our chests were almost pressed together and I could feel the tension radiating off her body. I felt suddenly embarrassed that the others had seen me get so angry.

"We know," Sydney murmured. "It's okay. It's okay to keep promises. I understand." I wondered if Sydney should've been the one to comfort her in the first place. She was doing a pretty good job, even though she was probably still quite nervous of Sonya. The Alchemists didn't take too kindly to us.

"Thank you. Thank you." Sonya's expression was so heartbreakingly grateful, that I almost felt bad when Sydney made it shift.

"But, I heard that you care about Lissa Dragomir."

"I can't."

"I know. I know. But what if there was a way to help her without breaking your promise?" I glanced at Rose questioningly. How could we get the information from her without breaking her promise? Rose shrugged and we both turned to Sydney. She really _was_ turning into a mastermind. We'd corrupted an Alchemist.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Well...what did you promise exactly? Not to tell anyone that Eric Dragomir had a mistress and a baby?" She nodded. "And not to tell who they are?" Another nod. Sydney smiled. "Did you promise not to tell anyone _where_ they are?" Hope swelled in me for a split second before it was crushed by Sonya's nod. "Did you promise not to _lead_ anyone to where they are?" There was a few moments hesitation as we all pondered Sydney's logic.

"No."

"So...you could lead us to them. But not tell us where they actually are. You wouldn't be breaking the promise that way." I bit my lip against my scoff. It sounded like something Rose would come up with. I'd never heard such a crazy twist of logic in my life. Let alone from an Alchemist.

"Maybe..."

"You wouldn't break the promise. And it would really, really help Lissa." _And Rose,_ I added silently. Rose took a step towards her.

"It would help Mikhail too," she told them. Sonya's mouth was agape.

"Mikhail? You know him?"

"He's my friend. He's Lissa's friend too. And he wants to help Lissa but can't. None of us can. We don't have enough information."

"Mikhail..." Sonya looked down at her hands, small tears dripping off her chin. I remembered briefly what it felt like to be truly in love. Briefly.

"You won't break your promise," Sydney told her. "Just lead us. It's what Lissa and Mikhail would want. It's the right thing to do." Sonya glanced up and stared at Rose, the most familiar figure and the one with all the connections. As per usual.

"I'll lead you there," she whispered. My brain did silent whoops of joy that I squashed down.

"We're going on another road trip," Sydney moaned. "Get ready." I looked down at Rose and smiled, but it was only there for a second. Had we got closer absentmindedly while persuading Sonya?

"You were wrong," I told her. "She really is the new general in town." Rose grinned back.

"Maybe. But, it's okay. You can still be colonel," she said with all seriousness. I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Did you demote yourself? Colonel's right after general. What does that make you?" She swung the car keys in her hand.

"The driver." There was absolutely no way I was letting her drive that car.


	20. Chapter 21

I knew I would get to drive. It was pretty obvious, really. Rose was annoyed at me, but it was better than her ignoring me. She was even more annoyed than Sydney, though, who we'd stuffed in the boot for the need of an extra seat. I'd tried to make the safest seating plan possible: I drove with Robert next to me. Rose was between Victor and Sonya behind us.

"We've got to get rid of Victor and Robert now," Rose murmured to me as we piled our small amounts of necessities in the car, hoping not to squish Sydney. "They've done what we needed. Keeping them is dangerous. It's time to turn them over to the guardians." That was a given.

"Agreed. But there's no good way to do it," I mused. "Not yet. We can't leave them tied up beside the road; I wouldn't put it past them to escape and hitchhike. We also can't turn them in ourselves, for obvious reasons."

"Sydney could turn them in."

"That's probably our best bet-but I don't want to put with her until we get to...well, wherever we're going," I had no idea. "We might need her help."

"And so, we drag them along." How wonderful.

"Afraid so." My mind drifted to how much I hated Victor Dashkov. Turning his daughter Strigoi and trying to kill Roza, putting that lust spell on us... "You know, when they're in custody, there's a very good chance they'll have quite a story to tell the authorities about us."

"Yeah. I guess that's a problem for later. Gotta deal with the immediate problems first." _Like telling her the truth,_ I thought to myself, wondering if that time would ever come. I hid my unease by smiling at her.

"Well, that's always been our strategy, hasn't it?" Strategy being a loose term.

We set off with Sonya giving me some vague directions. I knew she still felt extremely guilty about all this, on top of the Strigoi mess, but I was getting frustrated with the lack of co-operation. The rest of the drive was pretty silence. Robert had fallen asleep beside me. A quick glance behind showed that Rose was in Lissa's head, Victor was probably evil planning and Sonya was staring wistfully out of the window. Sydney was hidden from sight. So that left me alone with my thoughts. Great. I was feeling particularly restless today and found myself absentmindedly tapping the steering wheel or humming along to the music playing quietly on the radio. It wasn't even good music. I didn't even know the words, yet I found myself humming. My mind automatically acknowledged it as something Rose would do, and I sighed again. Why were my thoughts always consumed about her? I bet she didn't think of me this way. She could even be having sex with Adrian in a spirit dream right this moment. Oh God, what if she enjoyed it? What if he was better than me? UGH. I shuddered at the thought of her with _him_. In fact, I wouldn't like her with anyone else but me. Selfish, I know, but I'm a truthful man. Or, at least, I was. Until I met Rose.

I sighed _again_. What was wrong with me? I glanced back at Sonya, who seemed to be handing things okay for somebody who was an evil vampire just 24 hours ago. I wondered how she had the mind-strength not to break down and cry. I suddenly started seeing myself as weak. I had these stupid dreams and I'd cried so often, and been so completely inaccessible after being a Strigoi, yet this _Moroi woman_ was handling it better than me. _No wonder Rose doesn't want to be with me._ I shook of the thought. Noble, Dimitri. Stay noble. Don't steal her away. Don't do anything she doesn't want you to. But I didn't know how long I would be able to keep that promise.

**Okay, sorry it's short. Most of that chapter is in Lissa's head again, and I have a time restriction on my laptop and it turns of in 5 minutes, so I can't really do much now. I'll try and make it up to you in the next chapter, possibly on Sunday? **


	21. Chapter 22

**So here's the next chapter as promised.**

"You're looking awfully happy," Sonya said, shocking us all out of what we were doing. I realised she was talking to Rose who blinking back to reality suddenly.

"Lissa passed her second monarch test," she told us all. Perfect. That would buy us some more time. I began to realise Lissa was a lot stronger than I'd previously thought.

"Of course she did," Victor muttered, expelling my theories that he might've gone to sleep. I quickly checked Robert, but he was still sleeping soundly. A thought immediately came to me. I had no idea what these trials were; nobody did. But what if something happened to Lissa?

"Is she okay?" I asked. "Injured?" I knew Rose wouldn't be able to live with herself if Lissa got injured whilst she was away. It reminded me briefly of Ivan and I, but I shook off the thought.

"She's fine," Rose murmured, but I sensed something else. She seemed quite far away and I wondered if _she_ was affected by Lissa's experiences. I hoped desperately that she wasn't. I watched silently, driving down this endless road as Victor's eyes soon slid closed. As if she'd been watching him and was finally satisfied he was out, Rose yawned and then her eyes also shut. So then it was just Sonya and I for a while. I knew this was no place for a Strigoi conversation, especially over the others. Other than that, we didn't know anything about each other. She was Rose's teacher. She was a spirit user who'd gone crazy and turned Strigoi. She liked flowers. That was it.

Nothing much happened until I saw Sonya turn to stare at Rose. Her eyes seemed to be examining her, something I'd become attuned to because I did it so much. _Not just Rose_, my thoughts hastily corrected themselves, and I wondered why the clarification was necessary. I was really going mad. However, Sonya seemed confused.

"What?" I questioned. "What's wrong?" She turned hurriedly to me.

"Oh? Nothing," she blabbered. I eyed her critically.

"It doesn't look like nothing to me. Are you sure there's nothing you're not telling me?" She wisely decided against keeping secrets.

"Well, it's Rose's aura, really."

"Oh?"

"It's, well, it's shining slightly. Nothing unusual. I think she's in a spirit dream."

"A spir-oh. How can you tell?"

"Her aura's slightly gold. And it's shining."

"Does that mean anything?" She shrugged.

"Nothing to be worried by. It's not glaring bright or anything..." As she drifted off, her posture changed and I recognised her lie immediately, but decided not to push it. It probably meant probing into Rose's private life and emotions, and I still retained some part of the gentleman my mother taught me to be.

"Probably just the dream."

"Yeah." She turned away to the window then and I focused on my driving. I exaggerated all my thoughts, not letting them drift anywhere else. I didn't want my mind wandering into unwanted territory. _Take a left onto the I-77. Wait for the roundabout and take the 2__nd__ exit and drive until the next junction._ I switched gears impatiently.

I was alerted by a movement behind me and turned to see Sonya intently studying Rose again. Rose sat up and opened her mouth before closing it again. _What was she going to say?_ Rose was so aggravating just in the little movements. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to know everything about her. She almost leapt out of her seat and saw Sonya in her face. I tried to imagine how those blue eyes would be staring into her soul. Literally.

"You were having a spirit dream," Sonya stated.

"How'd you know?" Rose wondered. I kept my eyes on the road, still listening in to their conversation.

"Your aura."

"Aura's used to be cool, but now they're just starting to get annoying." _Starting to?_ They were annoying the first time I heard of them. _No, that's not true. They were only annoying after you met Adrian properly and knew he could do them._ I worked to kept he scowl off of my face. People probably thought I was schizophrenic.

"-informative if you know how to use them." Oh, good. I hadn't missed much. "Were you with Vasilisa?"

"No. My boyfriend. He's a spirit user too." My heart sank with the confidence in which she said _my boyfriend_.

"That's who you were with?"

"Yeah. Why? What's wrong?" There was a pause and I resisted the urge to turn around and therefore let them know that they weren't as quiet as they thought they were.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." Again, I heard that tone of voice that was slightly off. I could feel eyes on me and I hoped I hadn't missed something important. Was there some direction she'd given?

"Come on, it sure seemed like-"

"There!" Sonya yelled out. "Take that exit!" I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from swearing as I cut off in front of another guy who tooted me and gave me the finger. I crossed over onto the exit, just scraping past the barrier. The car shook and Sydney cried out, telling me she was awake after all. Robert and Victor also woke up, having had their heads banged against the windows.

"A little warning next time might be helpful," I informed her, kind of hoping for an apology, or a "Yes." However, she just stared out of the window. I turned to the sign that read WELCOME TO ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN_. _Sonya stiffened and I realised that this was the place. The last Dragomir lived here. I couldn't help a small bit of excitement run through me as I realised how close we were to finding them. It would mean everything we knew changing.

"Are we here?" Rose asked, reminding me of little kids shouting , "Are we there yet?" Except not as annoying. In fact, far from it. She was way too beautiful and strong to be like that. Scratch my analogy. I was really losing my touch. "And how long have we been on the road?" I glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

"Six hours," I told her, surprised. It had felt so much longer, probably because it had just been me, the stupid music and the road for most of the journey.

"Go left at that second light," Sonya told me. "Now right at the corner." We drove past dozens of houses down an impossibly long road-or so it seemed. The further we got, the more I breathed in. As soon as Sonya pointed one out, a collective exhalation rocked through the car. "There."

"Do you know if your relatives still live here?" Rose asked her as I pulled into the brick driveway. The house was nice, picture perfect with a neat green lawn. Definitely Moroi. She nodded. "I guess there's only one way to find out. Same plan?" I suddenly recalled the plan we'd discussed earlier that I'd all but forgotten about.

"Same plan," I echoed. "You go to the house. You look less threatening."

"Hey!" I smiled. I knew that was going to happen.

"I said 'look.'" Sonya, Sydney and Rose got out of the car and suddenly decided that a, "Be careful," was necessary. What if it was the wrong house? What if here were Strigoi? What if everything went wrong?

"You too," Rose responded and I felt my heart twinge. She cared about me at least, even if only a little bit. I couldn't help the smile that spread over my face. I knew I would need it anyway. In a car with Victor and Robert. Yeah. I watched nervously as they strode up the driveway and hoped to God that nothing happened to either of us.

**So, next chapter, look forward to the entire chapter just Robert, Victor and Dimitri. Better get my creative juices flowing! Hey, do any of you watch Doctor Who? Were you all as annoyed about the ending as I was?**


	22. Chapter 23

**Wow, guys, I'm **_**so**_** sorry. I was so busy after the last chapter and I've had really bad writer's block with this one. I'm not exactly what you'd call the wittiest of people. I tend to rely on heavy sarcasm, so I hope this is good enough for you all :D**

"Stop staring at her," Victor hissed in my ear. "Honestly, you don't half make it obvious." I frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked back.

"You. She's not even _there_ anymore." He shook his head. "I can't believe I'm the only one who figured it out. I was right. Everyone else is incredibly dumb." I felt my hands curl up into fists.

"Don't mention anything about me and Rose. That finished a _long _time ago." He raised an eyebrow but said nothing. I continued to watch the house, half guarding it and half hoping I'd get some clues. I could just about see through the window into their living room. There were six figures inside: Rose, Sonya, Sydney, a man, a woman and...was that another woman? She was quite tall. I couldn't work it out. Victor muttered something under his breath and I restrained myself from slamming his mouth shut.

Robert woke up then, and glanced over sleepily **(AN: I can't remember if he woke up before :D). **He stayed silent and Victor sighed. The figures in the window disappeared, but I could see a few heads. They must've sat down.

"Belikov?" Victor murmured.

"Mmm?"

"What's going on?"

"How could I possibly know that?"

"Well, you're the 'all-amazing guardian'. I thought you could do everything," he sneered. My hand shook.

"Why don't you put your Moroi hearing to good use and try to help me?"

"Why should I help _you_?"

"Because we'll turn you in otherwise." He fell silent, probably contemplating the chances that we weren't going to let him go anyway. Of course we weren't. It'd be silly to think otherwise.

After a while, I saw a blonde figure leap up. Sydney.

"She doesn't sound happy," Victor murmured.

"No," Robert confirmed. "Her aura's...humiliated." I frowned.

"Probably something about being human in a Moroi household," I explained. They both nodded. I wondered how much longer this sort of peace would last. Sydney was pulled back down and there was another minute that passed without event until the woman appeared again and sat down. I frowned. Who was she talking to? What had happened so far?

Suddenly, the woman jumped up again, and even _I_ could hear her shouting. Victor's eyes widened.

"She said...she doesn't want them there. She's going to call the police if they don't get out," he told me. I gaped. That would be really bad. Three 'criminals', one mental person and two other's all squished in a four seater car would not look good with the human police. Let alone the guardians.

"She can't let that happen!" I cried, but it wasn't like I could do anything about it.

"Jezz, cradle-robber, have some faith." I looked up and gave him a bizarre look.

"Oh? Is that what you're going to say when we get taken away by the guardians?"

"I thought you loved this girl. I thought you trusted her. I thought you believed in her. You're really giving off mixed signals, you know." I shook my head.

"For crying out loud, Victor, will you stop with the snarky remarks! This is serious, you know."

"Of course I know," he said. "I'm not stupid." I raised an eyebrow and then made the mistake of looking at his brother. He grabbed my arm in the strongest hold I'd felt from a Moroi. "I know what you're insinuating, Belikov. But I mean this. If you ever say anything of the sort about my brother I will kill you." I held up my hands in defense, easily shaking off Victor's hand.

"Woah, I didn't mean anything. I wasn't trying to say anything," I backed up.

"I saw the way you looked at him. Don't think you can fool me, Belikov. You didn't before and you don't now." I sat myself further away from him. "Are you listening?"

"Yes, of course, sir" I muttered and continued to watch the window. Apparently I'd missed something important. Most of the people inside were standing up, and they appeared to be having some sort of argument. I wished desperately I was in there, able to support them all and help out in some way. Sitting in this car was just painful.

And then, as if my fairy godmother had waved her wand, Rose walked out and smiled. I breathed a sigh of relief.

She was followed by Sonya and Sydney and together Sonya and Robert combined their powers to disguise him and Victor. Rose and I were both extremely surprised by grateful all the same. Before we went in, Rose explained the situation.

"The last Dragomir is..." she took a deep breath, "Jill Mastrano." I frowned.

"Who?" I wondered, vaguely recalling the name and wondering why I should.

"We met her before. After I was doing community service at the church and we had to take those books back. She was there. She was really excited to meet us, remember?" I had a dim recollection of a tall Moroi girl with lots of frizzy brown hair.

"Oh yes. She's a Dragomir?"

"Yeah. I can't see why I didn't realise earlier. She's got Lissa's eyes." It reminded me of a comment of Victor's about how no-one else had noticed Rose and I.

"Well, sometimes it just seems natural." She smiled.

"I suppose," she murmured. "Anyway, Emily-her Mom-has invited us all in for dinner and stuff."

"How hospitable of her." She smirked.

**Sorry it was so short and boring. Hopefully I'll have another chapter up quicker this time :D**


	23. Chapter 24

Emily cooked us all a stew for dinner, and it was delicious. Robert and Sonya teamed up to create a spirit disguise for the Dashkov's. The Mastrano's may have no trouble taking us lot in, but there was no way they'd want to hide official criminals and fugitives that nobody could trust. Then again, weren't _we_ official criminals and fugitives? She also managed to book a feeder to come over for the Moroi, which we were all extremely grateful for. Personally, I didn't think Victor deserved the luxury of being able to have a drink, but we needed them strong just in case we came to some difficulties. They were getting restless anyway. To give the Moroi some privacy, and to hide away from the feeders who would probably know about our criminal status, we headed upstairs. Emily told us to make ourselves comfortable, so we arranged showering times considering how long it had been since we'd had a wash.

We flipped a coin, and Rose won. She rifled through her clothes, only to pull out an impractical looking dress, and headed for the shower. I sat on the bed and sighed, listening to the sound of water running in the shower. Rose was humming softly and out of tune, and it made me smile a little, the corners of my mouth twitching up ever so slightly.

When I heard the hairdryer begin, I had my own shower, allow the warm water to soothe the rigid muscles in my back. I rolled my shoulders and relaxed ever so slightly, allowing myself one small luxury. Did I deserve it? Probably not. When I dried off, feeling much cleaner and generally better than I had when I'd stepped in, I pulled on a shirt and some jeans. My duster was left hanging up downstairs.

I walked back to the room we'd both been sat in previously and observed Rose sitting on the bed, her elbows resting on her knees, her eyes glazed over. She was wearing the dress she'd pulled out, and she looked even more stunning in it than I'd imagined. Why was she so perfect? I didn't want to love her. I didn't, I promise you. I tried.

However, as I turned and pulled my eyes away reluctantly, she started shaking. Her lips quivered, her hands were jiggling around and her feet were tapping the floor in some strange rhythm I had no part of.

"Rose?" I asked, worried. There was no reply. I took a couple of steps towards her. "Rose are you okay?" Still nothing. I knelt down in front of her and shook her shoulders. "Rose!" She blinked. "Rose, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

"No!" she cried, leaping up and shoving me aside as she stalked towards the door and flung it open. "I have to-I have to go back to Court. Now. Lissa's in danger. She needs me." _What?_ _Lissa's in danger? Who's attacking her? Who's hurting her?_ My guardian thoughts kicked in and I shoved them back down again, instead pulling out the responsible trainer.

"Rose. _Roza._" The name slipped out again. "Slow down." I reached for her arm and held on tight, but not so much that I could hurt her. "Tell me what happened." She began babbling about how Lissa had been attacked by a Moroi and then Eddie had staked the Moroi and how they'd found a death threat in Tatiana's room and how she was so worried. It blew my mind.

"Someone tried to kill her, Dimitri! And I wasn't there!" I understood her panic completely, but, as always, I was being relied on to be the voice of reason.

"But Eddie was," I told her. "She's okay. She's alive." I let go of her hand, suddenly realising I'd been holding onto it this whole time, and she fell against the wall, tired out.

"And now he's on trouble. Those guardians were pissed-"

"Only because they don't know the whole story. They see a dead body and a weapon, that's it. Once they get facts and testimonies, everything will be okay. Eddie saved a Moroi. It's his job."

"But he killed another Moroi to do it. We're not supposed to do that." I nodded.

"This wasn't a normal situation."

"I know, I know. I just couldn't stand leaving her undefended. I want so badly to go back and keep her safe. Right now. What if it happens again?" I smile softly at her panic-stricken expression. That was another thing I loved about her. Putting others before herself. Always.

"Other people are there to protect her. Believe me, I want to protect her too, but we'd risk our lives for nothing if we take off right now. Wait a little longer and at least risk your life for something important."

"And Jill is important, isn't she?"

"Very." Unspeakably important. More important than almost everything. But not quite. Rose sat up at this confirmation, although she already knew it in her head.

"We did," she spoke slowly, a grin beginning to appear. "Against all reason...somehow we found Lissa's lost sister. Do you know what this means? Lissa can have everything she's entitled to now. They can't deny her anything. Hell, she _could_ be queen if she wanted. And Jill...Well, she's part of an ancient royal family. That's got to be a good thing, right?"

"I think it depends on Jill. And what the after effects of all this are." There could be so many problems once this was all over, even if we did fix our current problems. It was an endless circle. You couldn't please everyone, yet we tried anyway. Rose looked at her feet.

"Hey, it's okay," I murmured, tilting her chin back up. "You did the right thing. No one else would have tried something this impossible. Only Rose Hathaway. You took a gamble to find Jill. You risked your life by breaking Abe's rules-and it paid off. It was worth it." She couldn't understand how proud I felt in this moment.

"I hope Adrian thinks so. He thinks me leaving our 'safe house' was the stupidest thing ever." My hand dropped in shock.

"You told him about all this?"

"Not about Jill. But I accidentally told him we weren't in West Virginia anymore. He's kept it secret, though. No one else knows." So he'd been visiting her. I suppose I should've known.

"I can believe that. He...he seems pretty loyal to you."

"He is. I trust him completely."

"And he makes you happy?" I didn't know what I wanted to hear. The selfish part of me wanted her to tell me that it wasn't enough and she wanted me back, but then my rational side just wanted her to be happy with whatever she chose. It would certainly make things easier if it was a clean break for her, at least.

"Yeah. He does. I have fun with him. I mean, he's infuriating at times-okay, a lot of the time-but don't be fooled by all the vices. He's not a bad person." I nodded whilst processing her speech. She said yes. Was that a good thing? And what did 'I have fun with him' mean? Does she love him?

"I know he isn't," I answered truthfully. "He's a good man. It's not easy for everyone to see, but I can. He's still getting himself together, but he's on his way. I saw it in the escape. And after..." I faltered a little, deciding whether to bring this up. "After Siberia, he was there for you? He helped you?" She nodded and I swallowed. _Ask her, Dimitri. Find out the truth, and then maybe you can stop your stupid obsession. Just one little question._

"Do you love him?"

She paused and I could tell she was genuinely thinking it over, just to give me her real, true answer. What was she thinking about now? A woman's thoughts were a mind-boggling thing.

"Yeah," she replied slowly. "I...I do love him." It hit me like a slap in the face, a slap I took with a grin.

"Good. I'm glad." I turned to look out the window at the fading sunlight as I pondered all that she'd said. She deserved someone who loved her, who could look after her without fail. She deserved all that, and I wasn't it. _You should be happy for her_. I _should_ be happy for her. Why wasn't I?

I heard footsteps behind me.

"What wrong?" she inquired quietly.

"Nothing," I told her, inhaling through my nose and exhaling with a smile. "I just want to make sure that you're okay. That you're happy. Things have been changing, that's all. Ever since Donovan...and then Sonya...it's been strange. I thought it all changed the night Lissa saved me. But it didn't. There's been so much more, more to the healing than I realised. Every day I figure out something new. Some new emotion I'd forgotten to feel. Some revelation I totally missed. Some beauty I didn't see." I found myself pouring my heart out to her and, typical Rose, she replied with a joke.

"Hey, my hair in the alley does _not_ go on that list, okay? You were in shock."

"No, Roza. It _was_ beautiful. It's beautiful now." I admired her hair, softly blown dry and falling naturally around her face. It looked the best like this.

"The dress is just throwing you off." Well, yes, that was a good point. The dress _was_ very nice, and it suited her a lot. I'd have to thank Sydney for that later. However, it wasn't just the dress. She was just naturally beautiful. Every inch of her was glorious. I allowed myself a brief memory of the cabin, of my arms wrapped around her bare skin, and I sighed. What went wrong?

"What?" she asked, tense. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I shook my head with a smile.

"Because, sometimes a person gets so caught up in the details that they miss the whole. It's not the dress or the hair. It's _you._ You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me." It cuts me to the core. Her gorgeous brown eyes widened, staring back at me, as if she could see into my soul, and I knew somehow that we were sharing the same moment. Something clicked. Maybe it was the catch of her breath, the blink of an eye, but we were together in that moment. I felt like nothing could ever separate us again. Except Sydney.

"Hey, have you guys-Oh," I heard her say, and I turned towards her as she stood stunned in the doorway. "Sorry. I-that is-" I pulled back, not having realised how close Rose and I had unintentionally moved towards each other. _See, Roza?_ I wanted to say. _Notice how gravity pulls us together_. But I kept my lips sealed.

"No problem," Rose answered her. "What going on?" Sydney still looked a little uneasy as she spoke.

"I...that is...I just wanted to come hang out. I can't handle _that_ going on downstairs." Right. Yeah. I'd forgotten about that. Forgotten about _her_. Rose smiled slightly.

"Sure, we were just...talking." Technically, that wasn't a lie, but I preferred something like _sharing emotions_ or _connecting our souls_. "We were talking about Jill. Do you have any ideas on how to get her to Court-seeing as we're all outlaws?" Sydney relaxed visibly and I leant against the wall.

"Well, you could always have her mother-" A loud crash interrupted her and Rose and I leapt for the door. What happened? What was wrong? Was somebody hurt? I prepared to race down the stairs when I heard shouts and skidded to a halt.

"Guardians," I choked out. "There are guardians raiding the house."

**Wow, Richelle really likes her cliffhangers, doesn't she? Then again, so do I :D Long awaited (pfff) updated for you guys.**


	24. Chapter 25

The three of us backed away involuntarily as we heard the guardians coming up the stairs, and I immediately started thinking of possible ways out. We were pretty much trapped.

"Get out," Sydney ordered. "I'll distract them."

I nodded. Good plan. We need good plans. The adrenalin pumped through me and I grabbed Rose's arm, shouting,

"Come on!" as we raced down the hallway. However, just before we entered the end bedroom, Rose turned around and yelled,

"Get Jill to Court!" Of course. Our leaving would automatically complicate matters now. We couldn't take Jill with us, but she was desperately needed by Lissa. I flung open a large window on one side of the room and quickly glanced at Rose so that she knew which way I was going before sliding out of the window. I leapt down onto the porch roof and slid onto the ground, bending my knees so that my legs wouldn't give out under the impact. Rose followed gracefully, just like I'd taught her to and I caught her arm as she landed beside me, wobbling slightly. She winced slightly, probably at a graze or cut, and then got back to normal.

Guardians sprung from behind the hedges and trees and we stood back-to-back, fighting them off. Thankfully I didn't recognise any of them-they were probably new recruits. As I fought, I kept a watchful eye on Rose. I noticed her dress getting caught between her legs, which could be a hazard if we had to run, and I needed to make sure I had her back.

"The others will be out any minute," I informed her, slamming the last foe onto the ground and knocking him out cold. "We need to move-" Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the garden gate. "There. That gate." I headed towards the gate and turned my head when I realised Rose wasn't beside me like I expected her to be. She was hobbling slightly as she ran, and suddenly I realised she must've hurt her ankle as she dropped off of the roof. As we ran down the road leading away from the Mastrano house, I slid one arm around her, taking a bit of her weight.

We turned off the road and started cutting through people's gardens to make it to our destination quicker. Wherever that was.

"We can't outrun them," Rose panted. "I'm slowing us down. You need to-"

"Do _not_ say leave you," I told her sternly. "We're doing this together." The whole point of breaking out of Court was to prove Rose's innocence, not let her go back for no reason.

Suddenly a flowerpot beside us exploded, dirt scattering across the ground.

"They're shooting at us! They're actually shooting at us!"

"With a silencer," I deduced, as another bullet zipped past me. The guardians wouldn't want to make a fuss. "Even so, they'll be cautious. They don't want the neighbourhood thinking it's under attack. We need cover. Fast." We turned again and as we ran I turned over possibilities in my mind. The guardians shooting at us said a lot. The orders were 'kill on sight'. No sparing our lives here. No chance to prove our innocence, or tell them what we've learnt. If we get caught by a bullet, _bam_. That's it. We're over.

A small house with a glass patio appeared in front of us, and suddenly I knew what we had to do.

"There," I muttered, reaching the door and tugging on the latch. Locked. Dammit. I growled and pulled my stake out of my pocket, slashing the screen that blocked the doorway. Looks like they're more than good for just killing Strigoi. I pulled Rose through the screen and hid behind it, pressing her into my body and holding a finger up. She knew what that meant. Silence.

As we stayed put, the sound of our own breath making us freeze up, we saw the guardians race past us. Some of them were checking out good hiding spots, most of which I'd noticed but had been a bit too obvious. I wondered how long it would take them to find the broken screen. We'd better move quick. Rose and I crept off into the living room, ducking down low and avoiding the windows. In the garage to the house was a red Ford Mustang. I felt a wave of relief wash over me and had to remind myself that it wasn't over yet.

"Two car family," I murmured. "I was hoping for that."

"Or they're out for a walk and about to come home when the notice a SWAT team in their neighbourhood," Rose added. Always the joker.

"The guardians won't let themselves be seen." We searched for the keys and Rose grabbed a pair on the side of a cupboard.

"Got 'em." She handed them over to me, willingly, surprisingly, and I opened the garage door before we nipped into the car.

"Will they spot us in this?" Rose asked as we backed out. "It's, uh, a bit flashier than our usual stolen car profile."

"It is," I agreed, "But other cars will be driving down the street. Some guardians will still be searching the yards, and some will be guarding the Mastranos. They don't have infinite numbers. They can't watch everything at once, though they'll certainly try." I knew from experience how hard a raid could be if there weren't many of you.

I spotted several guardians hiding in the usual places in the shadows as we drove out, and wondered how many Rose noticed on her side of the road. After a few minutes we were on the freeway. Rose relaxed, letting out a breath she'd obviously been holding, and stretched out her injured leg.

"They turned us in, didn't they?" she mused. "Victor and Robert called us in and then took off. I should've kept watch." I shook my head.

"I don't know," I contradicted her. "It's possible. I saw them just before I talked to you and everything seemed fine. They wanted to go with us to find Jill, but they knew it was only a matter of time before we turned them over to the authorities. I'm not surprised they came up with an escape plan. They could've used the feedings as a distraction to call the guardians and get rid of us."

"Crap. We should've gotten rid of _them_ when we had the chance. What'll happen now?"

"The Mastranos will be questioned...extensively. Well, all of them will, really. They'll lock Sonya up for investigation, like me, and Sydney will be shipped back to the Alchemists." I felt terrible for Sonya. It was awful feeling like a zoo animal, with people watching your every move.

"And what will they do to her?" Rose, on the other hand, was very worried about Sydney.

"I don't know. But I guess her helping vampire fugitives won't go over well with her superiors."

"Crap. And what are _we _going to do?"

"Put some distance between us and those guardians. Hide somewhere. Wrap up your ankle."

She turned to face me. "Wow, you've got everything planned out." I felt my lips turn down at the side.

"Not really. That's the easy stuff. What happens _after_ that is going to be the hard part."

There was no telling what could happen. We could get caught by the guardians, or we could not. But we couldn't remain in hiding forever. Rose stayed silent as I drove.

A little while later, she blinked back to reality and turned to me.

"Hotel?" she asked as I turned the car.

"Not quite," I replied, pulling into a twenty-four hour superstore. "Stay here."

"But-" I gave her a look, my fierce guardian look, and I got out of the car, hoping to God that she would be safe there by herself.

The aisles were plain and ordinary, selling your average items. There was plenty of food in fridges and lining the shelves, there was a small toy area, there was a bakery and a handful of clothes. I thought about what to buy. I wanted to be quick, because this wasn't the time for taking risks. I walked up and down each aisles, trying my best not to attract attention from the other customers, and picked up the things I needed. A bag of peas, two packets of crisps, two bars of chocolate, some bandaging material. I stopped and pursed my lips when I saw the week's special offers. It must've been some sort of God-given luck that this was the week they chose to promote camping. I picked up some bandaging materials, a torch, a tent and some blankets, adding them to the basket and headed to the tills.

I left the store after five minutes and was relieved to see Rose sitting patiently in the car. When I got in, I tossed the items carefully in the back. Rose peered at them.

"What's that?" she questioned curiously.

"A tent."

"Why are we-" She groaned. "No hotel, huh?"

"We'll be harder to find at a campground," I explained. "The car will especially be harder to find. We can't get rid of it quite yet, not with your foot." It was so unfortunate that she'd injured herself. It was definitely going to be a hard weight to bear.

"Those poor people. I hope their car insurance covers theft." I chuckled as we drove out of the town and headed towards the camping areas. The _Peaceful Pines_ ground seemed nice enough, so we pulled in there. I paid for one night's stay and we headed down the gravel road he gestured for us to follow. I parked in a cluster of trees, obscuring the car from main view, and set about assembling the tent. I had practice from this from when I was younger. We'd done a lot of camping-in the summer, obviously.

We both crawled inside, Rose fitting in comfortably, I myself having to fold my significantly longer body over slightly. I pulled the torch out of one of the shopping bags and propped it up in the corner, shining light on the two of us.

"Let me see the ankle," I requested, and Rose stretched out her leg. I carefully pushed her dress up to her knee so that I could expose the ankle as much as possible and gently tested its mobility. Rose shivered ever so slightly as my fingers touched her bare skin, and I could've sworn I felt a current flow between us. Was she feeling it too? Couldn't she see?

"I don't think it's broken," I told her after a little while, not ashamed at having extended my examination for slightly longer than necessary. "Just sprained."

"That kind of thing happens when you keep jumping off roves," she laughed. "You know, we never practiced that in our training." I smiled as I began to bandage up her ankle. I then reached behind me and pulled out the bag of peas.

"A bag of frozen peas?" Rose exclaimed. I felt my grin grow wider as I shrugged an rested the bag on her ankle.

"Easier than buying a full bug of ice."

"You're pretty resourceful, Belikov. What else do you have stashed away?" For some reason, the way she used my last name made my smile grow even more. I turned the bag inside out and she grinned at me when she saw the crisps and chocolate. However, she frowned once again when she reached the end of the bag.

"You didn't buy any clothes, did you?"

"Clothes?" Why would we need clothes? We were already wearing clothes. She gestured to the ripped dress.

"I can't wear this for long. What am I going to do? Make a toga out of a blanket? You're such a guy, not thinking of this stuff."

"I was thinking of injury and survival. Fresh clothing's a luxury, not a necessity."

"Not even your duster?" I froze and suddenly the sir on my shoulders seemed a lot more prominent. I swore when I remembered that I'd left my duster at the Mastranos. My poor, poor duster. My poor, poor shoulders. Rose smirked.

"Don't worry, Comrade," she teased. "Plenty more where that came from." I shook my head as I spread the blankets and laid back, feeling lost without my duster. "We'll get you another one. Y'know, once we find Jill, clear my name and save the world."

"Just those things, huh?" She laughed and I laughed with her until she laid down on the blankets beside me, her soft hair spilling around her.

"What are we going to do?"

"Sleep." I turned the torch off. "Tomorrow we'll get a hold of Abe or Tasha or...someone. We'll let them handle it and get Jill where she needs to be."

Not being able to see Rose's voice, I was surprised when I heard her voice penetrate the dark softly.

"I feel like we failed. I was so happy back there. I thought we'd done the impossible, but it was for nothing. All this work for nothing." I felt my eyebrows pinch together at her sad tone. I hate her being upset.

"Nothing? What we did...this is huge. You found Lissa's sister. Another Dragomir. I don't think you still really understand the weight of that. We had almost nothing to go on, yet you pushed forwards and made it happen." Why couldn't she see how amazing that feat was? How amazing _she_ was?

"And I lost Victor Dashkov. Again."

"Well, the thing about him is that he doesn't stay hidden for long. He's one of those people who always has to be in control. He'll have to make a move eventually, and when he does-we'll get him."

"And I thought _I _was the optimistic one here." That was usually true. We'd had a bit of a role swap today.

"It's contagious," I murmured, reaching for her hand in the dark and squeezing her hand reassuringly. "You did good, Roza. Very good. Now sleep."

Our schedule that we'd quickly made in the car meant that it was Rose's turn to sleep now whilst I kept watch. Eventually her breathing slowed and I figured she must be in some sort of dream-like state, yet she still didn't let go of my hand. It felt nice having her warm palm there to hold onto. I rested my head on my shoulder and peered out of the tent. I wasn't sure whether I was looking for guardians, Strigoi or the Dashkov brothers, but any of them were enemies. It was a hard life being a guardian.


	25. Chapter 26, 27 and 28

**Yep, I'm chapter merging again. 3 chapters this time. Rose spends **_**way **_**too much time in Lissa's head. **

Rose slept for a few hours. For the first couple of hours she appeared to be dreaming, as her face scrunched up into a frown as she slept. Her hand fell out of mine after a little while and she rolled onto her front, her legs spread like a starfish. I sighed and stared at the walls of the tent. If anybody was coming from outside, they would make a shadow on the tent so I'd at least have a head-start against them.

Although, having said that, I had absolutely no idea what we were going to do now. First on the list was restoring Rose's confidence. That evening she's seemed so...different. Rose was supposed to be noisy, bubbly, lively, and the absence of that was strange. Rose relied on her confidence and her strength, two of her most admirable features, and I was determined to make sure she at least had those to fall back on if necessary.

And after that, we had to contact somebody. How? God only knows. I'd lost my mobile phone when I left my beloved duster at the Mastranos' house. There was, of course, the possibility of contact via spirit dreams, but we couldn't rely on that. Besides, as far as I knew, the only person Rose had been in contact with was Adrian, who would be useless in this situation. We needed an action plan, but we had nothing to depend on. It was infuriating.

"Your time for sleep, Comrade." I was unprepared for Rose's voice in the dark. I'd expected to be forced to wake her up, considering she could never be on time for our training sessions before. Ignoring the wistfulness I experienced at the memories of our early morning jogs, I told her,

"You can get more rest if you need it."

"No, I'm fine. And remember, you're not-"

"I know, I know, I'm not the general," I finished for her with a laugh, predicting exactly what she was about to say. There was a pause and then Rose began to relay her dreams to me.

"Sonya visited me," she informed me. I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue, "She's safe. She compelled the guardians to ignore her, because they were so focused on us. But...she hasn't got Jill."

"She hasn't got Jill," I repeated, and she shook her head, her long hair gently brushing against my duster-free arm.

"Victor and Robert do." I felt my eyes widen and my fists curl up.

"Victor and Robert have her? That's terrible! Think of what they might have heard. You know Victor, he'll abuse her for his own power! He knows what she's worth, and now he's got her and we haven't and-"

"Hey, calm down," she told me softly, placing a hand on my arm where her hair was previously. I felt a sudden wave of change, our role-swapping disconcerting. Since when had I been the one who needed calming? When had she become the steady, down-to-earth leader? "Sonya says she'll contact her when she's sleeping. She's probably just under compulsion, nothing terrible." I shook my head miserably.

"That's not the point."

"I know. But it was John and Emily, well, John, that called the guardians. I don't think they were as comfortable housing fugitives as they appeared. There's no way we could go back there."

"No, I had a feeling that would be the case."

"Did I do the right thing telling Sonya where we are?" I paused for a moment, considering that. If Sonya came here, then we would know more news about Jill without one of us having to be asleep. She'd be useful to have on our side.

"Yes. You're right that we need her help-and she can find Jill. The problem is, Victor and Robert have to know that too." I sighed as she nodded glumly. "And you're right that I'd better rest up for what's to come." I laid down on the sleeping bag and turned onto my side, closing my eyes and trying to clear my mind. For some reason, I felt that Rose was keeping something from me, although I wasn't sure why. Even if she was, it wasn't my business to know about it. I was nothing to her anymore. Was I her friend? Maybe. Could she forgive me for what I did? I knew that if I was in her position, I certainly would've struggled. She had a right to be as angry with me as she wanted, and there was no way I could criticise her for that.

I fell asleep mid-way through my musings, dreaming of Siberian snow, homemade bread and a girl with chocolate brown eyes. Sleep was peaceful, my escape from the world, and I felt myself falling deep into the darkness for the first time in what seemed like forever. When was the last time I'd slept like this? Before I'd met Rose, definitely. She was a magnet for trouble, and nobody was ever safe with her around, yet nobody could let go of her either.

Mid-way through the night, I felt the cold hit my arms, despite being wrapped tightly in the sleeping bag, the blanket piled under my head like a pillow. I reached out for something, anything, to hold onto and conserve the warmth. Something drew me towards it, almost as if gravity was attached to this new, warm object. I pressed up against the warmth, finding it surprisingly soft but resisting the temptation to wrap myself around it, instead resting my head on it gently. A small smile flickered across my lips as I settled comfortably in my new position, my dreams once again floating towards those stolen moments in the gym, when Rose and I had been completely alone and had the world to ourselves, or so it had seemed in those blissful minutes. It never lasted long, but it was always perfect.

I clung to the warmth like a security blanket, wanting to never let go. I could've slept for days if I'd wanted to. Rest was a desperate need, and the warmth was certainly providing good drowsy conditions. It enveloped me from all sides and hugged me tighter until I was engulfed by the perfect temperature, the perfect softness, everything perfect. My thoughts skittered across my mind, nothing concrete, just colours and sounds and words and a beautiful memory of a smile.

And suddenly, as if out of nowhere, I felt a soothing hand in my hair, stroking my head softly. Consciousness was startling and my eyes shot open, taking in my surroundings. Of course. Of _course_ the warmth I'd found would be Rose. Her hand continued to run through my hair gently and our eyes locked together, so many unspoken conversations passing between us in that moment as I rested my head on her chest as I had been for the past couple of hours. Hadn't she made me move? I became aware of her arm around me, explaining even more than I was able to comprehend. She stared at me with those eyes, saying so much more than words ever could.

I need to move. I couldn't keep lying there, the feeling of her heartbeat fluttering against her ribcage too much for me to handle. I lifted my head ever so slightly so that I was looking down at her, our faces only inches apart. My hair fell down the sides of my face as I drank in her appearance, and the seconds slipped by so that minutes turned to hours and it was just the two of us in our own little world. And the decision was up to me. Do I lean down? Do I close the gap between us? Do I give in to my wants and needs and risk losing everything?

No. No, I couldn't do it. My conscience screamed at me to do the right thing, be the right person. I would be the good one and I would wait for Rose to make the decision. I wasn't going to be the one in the wrong. Not this time.

I sat back on my heels and turned away from her.

"Wh-what's wrong?" she asked, her voice shaking from my abrupt dismissal. I turned back towards her, unprepared for her heartbroken face. Was it heartbroken? Or was it just denied? Either way, it was my fault, and she was upset. It was my fault she was upset. Why were my emotions so conflicted? I felt like a stupid teenager, lusting after a celebrity and finally meeting them in person, having to stop myself from taking her in my arms and having my way with her then and there because I'd been raised with decency.

"Pick. There are lots of choices."

"I know...I know things have changed. I know you were wrong. I know you can feel love again." Those words. _I know you were wrong._ I was wrong. I was never wrong, but I was wrong this once. And Rose knew that. Why couldn't I just admit that I was wrong and be done with it? Why couldn't I let go of the burden?

"This isn't about love."

"If it's not about love, then what is it about?"

"It's about doing the right thing." She frowned and looked as though she was about to ask something else, to keep the discussion going. Couldn't she hear the truth in my voice? Didn't she understand?

But, thankfully, we were interrupted. Something, or somebody, scratched at the tent door, and we both leapt back and grabbed our stakes, springing into action as if the past few moments hadn't ever happened.

"Rose?" a familiar voice called quietly. "Dimitri?" We relaxed our stances slightly at the sound of the voice, and Rose carefully unzipped the tent door. Sonya was kneeling in front of it, wearing yesterday's clothes, although they were in a slightly better state than our own. She crawled in, making the already small space even more claustrophobic.

"Cosy," she stated, glancing around at our messy tent. "You've got the farthest spot out on the campground. Took me forever to find the car that you described."

"How'd you get here?" Rose asked as I dropped my stake and zipped up the door behind her.

"You're not the only ones who can steal cars. Or, in my case, get people to 'willingly' lend them."

"Were you followed?" I wondered.

"Not that I could tell. A couple of guardians followed me back in the neighbourhood, but I lost them a while ago. Most of them seemed more interested in you two." Just like Rose had said, all those hours ago.

"Imagine that," Rose muttered bitterly. "Too bad Victor was long gone-he might've taken priority."

"He didn't kill a queen." Neither did Rose, but I didn't bother adding that anecdote. "But the good news is I know where they're at now."

"Where?" Rose and I inquired.

"West Michigan. They took off in the opposite direction from Court."

"Damn." We'd gone the wrong way. Now it would take twice as long to get there, and we may have to go through Detroit again. "But you saw Jill? Is she okay?"

Sonya nodded. "Fine. Scared, but fine. She described enough landmarks that we can locate her motel. I found her in a dream a couple of hours ago; they had to rest. Victor wasn't feeling well. They might still be there."

"Then we need to leave now," I stated, beginning to pack my bag. "Once they're gone, Jill will be awake and out of contact." As I put the tent away, I noticed Sonya healing Rose's ankle out of the corner of my eye. Good. She needed to be in top condition for what may follow. It wasn't going to be easy getting Jill away from the Dashkov brothers.

I drove again, using a stolen car, again, with Sonya giving me the directions Jill had provided her with. I drove faster than I should've done, knowing how urgent it was that we got there quickly.

"There," Sonya confirmed, as we drove towards a small motel in Sturgis. "That's what she described. The Sunshine Motel." I pulled into the motel's car park and we glanced at the dreary looking motel. It wasn't a big motel, so they wouldn't be _that_ hard to find, but we had to be careful. As soon as they were alerted to our presence, they would take off.

Suddenly, Sonya pointed into the corner of the car park.

"That's their car. They're here," she confirmed. We turned towards the car in the corner and I recognised it as the car we'd driven to Jill's house.

"Sloppy," I murmured. "They should've switched cars." Any sensible person would've done. You didn't need to be a guardian to have common sense.

"That's Sydney's," Rose said. "It's not technically stolen, so it's not on any police lists. Besides, something tells me Victor and Robert aren't hot-wiring pros like _some_ people are." I nodded solemnly.

"Whatever the reason, it helps us."

"How do we find them?" Sonya wondered.

"We wait," Rose suggested. "It's amazing enough that they even stopped this long. If they have any sense, they'll leave soon." My thoughts turned to my previous idea of common sense amongst the two Moroi, but it was a good plan, at least.

"Agreed," I said, and our eyes caught for a split second. Rose looked away first, and I tried to keep my face straight. "The lot's easy to defend too. Not much room for escape." I reparked the car and Rose and I jumped out, leaving Sonya inside to watch over it and stay safe. We stood behind the car where we had a clear view of the whole car park and the motel. I crossed my arms and waited patiently.

"I don't suppose that we're going to talk about this morning?" Rose asked softly.

"There's nothing to talk about," I told her sternly, keeping my eyes trained on the car.

"I knew you'd say that. Actually, it was a toss-up between that and 'I don't know what you're talking about.'" I sighed. How did she know me so well? And how did she know how to push my buttons? I didn't want to talk about it. I'd made a mistake, but at least I hadn't fallen completely into the trap. Couldn't she let it go? "But there _is_ something to talk about. Like when you almost kissed me. And what did you mean about 'the right thing'?"

I ignored her. It was my best policy, and it had worked several times before.

"You wanted to kiss me!" she exclaimed. "I saw it!"

"Just because we want something doesn't mean it's right."

"What I said...it's true, isn't it? You _can_ love, can't you? I realise now that right after the transformation, you really didn't think you could. And you probably couldn't. But things have changed. You're getting yourself back." I glanced at her, ignoring my inner turmoil.

"Yes. Things have changed...and some things haven't."

"Okay, Mr Enigma. That doesn't help explain the 'right thing' comment." Resisting the urge to roll my eyes at her teenage ignorance, I explained briskly,

"Rose, I've done a lot of bad things, most of which I can never fix or find redemption for. My only choice now, if I want to reclaim life, is to go forward, stopping evil and doing what's right. And what is _not_ right is taking a woman from another man, a man I like and respect. I'll steal cars, I'll break into houses. But there are lines I _will_ not cross, no matter what I-"

For once in my life, I was grateful to see Victor Dashkov, who had interrupted me before I said too much. The motel door banged open and he appeared with Robert and Jill, the latter obviously being compelled to walk straight.

"Go for Victor," I whispered to Rose. "I'll get Robert." Rose nodded.

"Jill will run as soon as the compulsion's broken, I hope."

Together, we leapt out from behind the car and sprinted across the car park towards the two men. Immediately, my guardian instincts kicked in. I wasn't aiming to kill but simply disarm. However, whilst kicking Victor's legs out from underneath him, I suddenly remembered the powers he possessed that I had no defence against.

"Come on, young man," Robert tried to say, grunting as I knocked him to the floor. "You wouldn't hurt an old man now, would you?"

_Don't look into his eyes! He's going to compel you! Resist him!_

I reached out and he rolled away from me, scrambling to his feet again. I grabbed his arm from behind and yanked him towards me, but he caught the back of my knee and I wobbled on one leg before balancing myself again. For an old Moroi, he was putting up a decent fight. I faced him and suddenly realised my mistake. A strange sense of calm overwhelmed me as I gaped at Robert, his lips moving but no words coming out. I felt my hand begin to let go of its tight clasp around Robert's upper arm and my legs backed away from him. Why was I harming him? He wasn't doing anything to hurt me.

I heard a high-pitched scream from beside me and recognised it instantly. Rose. The only thing that could possibly snap me out of this spirit-induced coma. I broke eye contact with Robert and glanced over at Rose for a split second. The ground rolled beneath her and she struggled to stay upright as she lunged at Victor who was sprawled on the floor and taunting her. But she was okay. I didn't need to worry about her. I raced after Robert, who was now half-way across the carp park and yanking at the car door, attempting to re-compel Jill. I spotted Sonya from inside the car and realised she was doing the same, Jill torn between the two of them.

I changed direction suddenly and scooped Jill up in my arms, replacing her by the car where Sonya could accurately compel her to stay inside, before returning to Robert. I grabbed both of his arms and pulled them tight behind his back. He struggled against me and, realising that my iron grip wasn't going to let go, fell limp and let me drag him towards our own car.

But, in front of my very eyes, I saw Rose strike like a cobra. A swell of pride overwhelmed me, and then my mouth formed an 'O' shape as I realised her mistake. There was nothing I could do. I was helpless, holding Robert in my arms.

"Get up!" Rose screeched. "Get up and fight me!" She leapt at Victor again, shaking him, banging his head against the wall. Her hair fluttered around her and her teeth were bared. The look in her eyes was feral and manic, her face contorted with animalistic rage. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was worse than the normal spirit darkness. It was...honestly, one of the scariest things I'd ever seen.

I was brought back to my senses by a wail from beside me. I gripped Robert's arms tighter as he struggled against me, flailing and kicking out, desperate to get to his brother. Rose turned towards us and I focused on Robert instead, not wanting to face the look in her eyes.

"Victor! Victor!" Robert cried at the sight of his brother laying limp on the floor, his voice breaking as the horror broke through.

"Get him out of here!" Sonya yelled at me. "Get him out of here, as fast as you can!" My eyes widened, not expecting her order to be so fierce, but didn't delay. When dealing with spirit users, Sonya knew more than I did. I dragged Robert to the edge of the car park, the smaller man shouting and scratching at my hands. Sighing, I tossed him over my shoulder, and become alert to something very off.

Instead of piercing screams, Robert had fallen deadly silent. I followed his gaze and saw Sonya throw herself in front of Robert's line of view, the man howling with rage.

"Get him out of here! He's trying to bring Victor back! He'll be shadow-kissed!" she explained and I hurried off again. We couldn't allow that. The two brothers with a bond would be a lethal combination. I dragged Robert off, out of the car park and into a small alleyway nearby, where I held him and tried to keep him silent. The last thing we needed was a curious citizen stumbling upon us.

About five minutes later, I saw a teenage girl with curly auburn hair walk past, and I leapt out of the end of the alleyway. The girl flinched and then relaxed, realising who I was but keeping her distance from Robert.

"Dimitri," Jill breathed. "I was told to come and find you. Sonya needs you." I nodded and turned away for a second.

"Jill, you just wait around the corner for me, okay?" She nodded, frowning at me, and walked away. I turned back to Robert, who looked at fiercely, and then my hands pressed into his neck. His eyes widened and then fell shut, his breathing evening out. I then followed Jill back to the car park, where Rose and Sonya were sat having an intense conversation in the car. I knocked on the car window and Sonya let the pair of us in.

"Where's Robert?" she asked.

"Unconscious," I told her, "hidden in some bushes around the corner."

"Charming. Do you think that's smart, leaving him?" I shrugged, my mind preoccupied with the tense Rose curled up in the corner, yet still unable to look at her.

"I figured I shouldn't be seen carrying an unconscious guy in my arms. In fact...yes, I think we should just leave him there. He'll wake up. He's not a fugitive. And without Victor he's...well, not harmless. But less harmful. We can't keep dragging him with us anyway." Rose laughed suddenly, a manic, almost evil, hysterical laugh, like the laughs I'd heard from Robert. I turned slowly to look at her, frightened by what I saw. What had happened?

"He's unconscious. Of course. Of course. You can do that. You can do the right thing. Not me," she wailed, yet she wasn't crying. Not yet. But there it was again, the right thing. Even hysterical Rose was talking about it. "'An animal,' he said. He was right. No higher reasoning..." She crossed her arms and her fingernails dug into her skin, so hard that beads of blood began to appear there. I couldn't help the gasp that fell out of my mouth. If I'd thought she was fragile earlier, that was nothing compared to now. I'd never, _ever_, expected Rose to end up like this. Was self-harm the next step? Would she end up like Lissa? Was that where this was going? Panicked, I turned to Sonya for answers.

"What's wrong?" I demanded.

"Spirit," Sonya told me softly. "She's pulled and pulled for so long...and managed to hold it back. It's been waiting, though. Always waiting..." The way she spoke about the spirit darkness, as if it was a murderer hiding in the shadows, unnerved me. Sonya turned to Jill. "Is that silver?" Jill glanced at the heart shaped locket lying softly against the pale skin of her neck.

"I think so," she replied.

"Can I have it?" Jill undid the clasp and handed the necklace to Sonya, who held it tightly and squeezed her eyes shut before handing it to Rose. "Put it on."

"The heart..." Rose muttered, and then glanced up at me. I resisted the urge to back away like a frightened rabbit. "Do you remember that? 'Where's the heart?' you asked. And here it is." Yes. Yes, I remembered that well. But associating it with this moment was something I hoped would never happen. I swallowed and turned to Sonya for help. "Here it..." Rose's voice trailed away.

"This is a healing charm," she stated, her words far more considered and clear, as she fingered the heart on the locket.

"I didn't know if it'd work on the mind," Sonya told her. "I don't think it's a permanent fix...but between it and your own will, you'll be okay for a while." _For a while._ I wondered how long Rose's will would last. How long did we have before she snapped?

Rose's face fell and she sighed, an exasperated, incredibly pained, adult sigh. I watched her carefully, now brimming with compassion as what she'd done fully crashed around her.

"What have I done?" she whispered, her voice breaking with emotion. Jill put her arm around her caringly as I stared at Rose, wishing there was some way I could help her, some way I could take the pain away. Did she understand how I felt now, after being a Strigoi and dealing with the guilt of all the murders? Would this affect her soul?

"What you had to," I murmured, turning away and getting in the driver's seat.

**So this was a HUGE chapter, both words wise and plotwise. I hope I did it justice for you guys :D**


	26. Chapter 29

**Thanks so much for all the feedback! It's much appreciated :D **

**Yet another difficult chapter here, please bear with me for my 14-year-oldness. **

The next hour was a quiet one. We drove to a remote area outside of town, Rose in the front beside me, to dispose of Victor's body. She remained silent the whole time, staring out of the window whilst contemplating. I was struggling to watch the road, wanting to watch over her and make sure she was safe from the darkness. I wasn't sure how much I trusted the charm that Sonya had created for her.

When we reached the place, Sonya and I got out and hauled the body from the boot. I couldn't help glancing at Jill as I left the car, but she nodded at me and then gave me a fierce look. I hope Rose hadn't noticed. It wasn't that I doubted her, nor was I worried for anybody's safety but, being a guardian, I had to make sure everything was secure. If something happened to Rose whilst I was away, there would be no way that Jill would be able to help. She was just a 15 year-old-Moroi.

After that, we began the endless drive back to Court. We wouldn't be there for a day or so, but we still had to discuss plans. We hadn't heard anything from those at Court, so had no idea how far they were progressing with proving Rose's innocence. There was no way either of us could go back to Court. Sonya and I discussed this as we drove back, deciding that she would take Jill into Court in the car whilst Rose and I stayed in a hotel nearby.

"Can I call my parents?" Jill asked suddenly. "I want them to know that I'm okay." I felt unease curl in my stomach.

"I don't think that's a very good idea. The call could be traced, or you could accidentally give something away, or maybe your parents would turn us in after what happened at your house," I told her honestly. Sonya placed a reassuring hand on Jill's arm.

"I'll try and get to your Mum in her sleep, just tell her you're okay, alright?" she informed her. Jill nodded, look slightly more relieved, and I turned to Rose for a second before turning back to the road. Her eyes were glazed over as she stared straight ahead, obviously in Lissa's head. Would she have any new updates to tell us when she was back to herself?

And then I thought to myself, what if being in Lissa's head was making the darkness worse? It was stupid and irrational, as we already knew that Rose couldn't wield spirit, but in that moment I was so scared that anything would've made sense. I resisted the urge to shake her back to herself.

We drove for several hours and I tried to switch into guardian mode, not wanting to let my mind wander too far. Dwelling over my thoughts would only cause trouble. Jill had fallen asleep in the back, her head resting on Sonya's shoulder, who was looking pensive but kept her mouth shut. I wondered whether she had a plan she wasn't telling me, or whether she was waiting until we reached a resting place.

We eventually pulled into the car park of a typical hotel, a bright light flashing its name above the door. I shut the engine off and turned backwards. Sonya had dozed off slightly, but looked like she might wake up at the slightest noise. Rose blinked slowly and took in her surroundings, just as I'd taught her. There was no expression on her face, nothing to give me any clues about what had just happened, so I figured it couldn't be that important if she had nothing to say. She'd be ranting and raving if she'd missed anything.

"What's going on?" she wondered, turning to face me.

"We're stopping," I replied. "You need to rest."

"No I don't. We need to keep going to Court. We need to get Jill there in time for the elections." _Right. The elections._ As if the elections were on now. I turned the full force of my gaze on her.

"You were just with Lissa. Are the elections actually happening yet?"

"No." Her response was quiet.

"Then you're getting some rest."

"I'm _fine_." I let out an exasperated sigh. In no sense of the word could she possibly be 'fine'. Even if the whole spirit thing hadn't happened, we hadn't had a proper night's sleep for at least a few days; the night in the tent was nothing to live upon.

"It isn't just you we have to think about here, Rose," I counteracted, wincing inside at having to use that excuse. My main focus was on Rose and her well-being, and it was imperative that she got rest, but I knew she wouldn't settle unless I shifted the weight so that it meant we were helping others too. Rose wouldn't be able to deny other people their sleep.

We checked in, giving them cash with a side dish of compulsion before heading for the two adjoining rooms that we'd booked.

"Let me talk to her alone," I murmured to Sonya, out of ear-shot. "I can handle it."

"Be careful," Sonya warned me. "She's fragile." I nodded in understanding.

"You guys, I'm right here!" Rose exclaimed, and I shuffled my foot embarrassedly. Not _that_ far out of ear-shot, then. Sonya took Jill's arm and guided her into what they'd decided was their room, saying, "Come on, let's order room service." I opened our own door and held it open for Rose, who walked past me and into the room, sitting on the bed and folding her arms.

"Can _we_ order room service?" she teased. I rolled my eyes and took a chair from the side of the room, placing myself opposite her.

"We need to talk about what happened with Victor," I told her simply, resting my elbows on my knees and leaning forwards.

"There's nothing to talk about." She turned away, staring at a picture on the wall, and I felt her voice go cold. "I really am the murderer everyone says I am. It doesn't matter that it was Victor. I killed him in cold blood."

"That was hardly cold blood." Cold blood was murder with no purpose. Like what I'd done. Like what Strigoi did.

"The hell it wasn't!" she cried, turning back to me and throwing her hands out. I saw tears glisten in her eyes and bit back my response, allowing her to continue. The plan was to subdue him and Robert so we could free Jill. _Subdue._ Victor wasn't a threat to me, he was on old man, for God's sakes!"

"He seemed like a threat. He was using his magic." She shook her head at me and buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the tears that I'd already seen. Poor, Rose. Always so strong yet so easily driven by her own emotions. It was yet another one of her fantastic qualities, how she stood up for herself and others, how she used her anger to fully deliver a blow, how she could be so soft and so passionate. Yet, in this moment, it was breaking her.

"It wasn't going to kill me. He probably couldn't have even kept it up much longer. I could've waited it out or escaped. Hell, I did escape! But instead of capturing him, I slammed him against a concrete wall! He was no match for me. An old man. I killed an _old man._ Yeah, maybe he was a scheming, corrupt old man, but I didn't want him dead. I wanted him locked up again. I wanted him to spend the rest of his life in prison, living with his crimes. _Living_, Dimitri." Her voice broke when she said my name, and I swallowed, wishing that I could reach out and comfort her, wishing I'd never cut her out of my life. She'd been so willing to have me back, but I held back until it was too late. She was already in a relationship. Her heart was already taken.

"There was no honour in what I did to him," she whispered.

"Sonya said it wasn't your fault. She said it was a backlash of spirit."

"It was...I never really understood what Lissa experienced in her worst moments until then. I just looked Victor...and I saw everything evil in the world-an evil I had to stop. He was bad, but he never deserved that. He didn't have a chance." Even when talking about her accidental murder, Rose always managed to be _good._ She killed him because she was stopping the evil to save other people. How could somebody blame that? It wasn't her fault.

"You aren't listening, Rose. It wasn't your fault. Spirit's a powerful magic we barely understand. And its dark edge...well, we know it's capable of terrible things. Things that can't be controlled." She lifted her head up again and looked me straight in the eyes.

"I should've been stronger than it. I was weak." Her words shocked me all of a sudden. Weak? How could Rose ever consider herself weak? She was the strongest person I knew, and she was only just out of high school. I tried to think of something intelligent to say, desperate not to give myself away.

"You aren't invincible. No one expects you to be," I assured her.

"_I _do. What I did...What I did was unforgivable." For a heartbeat I was silent. I felt my eyes widen as I took in her words.

"That...that's crazy, Rose. You can't punish yourself for something you had no power over."

"Yeah? Then why are you still-" She cut herself off, but I could finish her sentence. _Why are you still beating yourself up over being a Strigoi? _I'd been asking myself the same question the whole time we'd been together, seeking an answer and hoping I'd find one. Trying to cure myself, convince myself that what Rose said was true, that I was still a good person. And I felt that I _had_ taken that step. I _had_ stopped beating myself up over it. Sure, I was still full of regrets, but that was expected. I'd managed to move on, finally.

"When?" Rose asked, diverting the conversation. "When did it change? When did you realise you could keep living, even after all that guilt?"

"I'm not sure," I answered slowly, thinking over my answer. There wasn't a set answer. It had been a gradual process. "In bits, really. When Lissa and Abe first came to me about breaking you out, I was ready to do it because she asked me to. Then, the more I thought about it, the more I realised it was personal, too. I couldn't stand the thought of you locked in a cell, being cut off from the world. It wasn't right. No one should live like that, and it occurred to me that I was doing the same-by choice. I was cutting myself off from the world with guilt and self-punishment. I had a second chance to live, and I was throwing it away." I began pouring my soul out to her, telling her everything, letting my feelings out yet never actually reaching the point.

"You heard me talk about this before, about my goal to appreciate life's little details. And the more we continued on our journey, the more I remembered who I was. Not just a fighter. Fighting is easy. It's _why_ we fight that matters, and in the alley that night with Donovan...That was the moment I could've crossed over into someone who fights just to senselessly kill-but you pulled me back, Rose. That was the turning point. You saved me...just as Lissa saved me with the stake. I knew then that, in order to leave the Strigoi part of me behind, I had to fight through to be what they aren't. I had to embrace what they reject: beauty, love, honour."

I watched the emotions flicker across her face as I spoke, and then she was back to her new, guilt-ridden self. Had my confession not helped at all?

"Then you should understand. You just said it: Honour. It matters. We both know it does. I've lost mine. I lost it out there in the parking lot when I killed an innocent."

"And I've killed hundreds. People much more innocent than Victor Dashkov."

"It's not the same! You couldn't help it! Why are we repeating the same things over and over again?"

"Because they aren't sinking in! _You _couldn't help it either." I felt my patient facade begin to give way to the frustrated inner me threatening to boil over. "Fell guilty. Mourn this. But move on. Don't let it destroy you. Forgive yourself."

She leapt up from the bed and leaned her face towards me so that I could feel her breath tickling my nose. "Forgive myself? That's what you want? _You_ of all people?" My mouth gaped open but nothing came open. I closed it and nodded slightly. "Then tell me this. You say you moved past the guilt, decided to revel in life and all that. I get it. But have you, in your heart, really forgiven yourself? I told you a long time ago that I forgave you for everything in Siberia, but what about you? Have you done it?"

"I just said-"

"No. It's not the same. You're telling me to forgive myself and move on. But you won't do it yourself. You're a hypocrite, comrade. We're either both guilty or both innocent. Pick." How did she expect me to answer that? It wasn't just the blood-drinking, the murder, that counted. Even though that in itself was horrifying, that was the Strigoi way of life. But the abuse of Rose herself, trapping her in that room and tempting her, only to drink from her and threaten her, _that_ was twisted. It hadn't been necessary at all. That had been my own mind doing that. That was unforgivable. Rose couldn't help herself. She didn't have a choice. I had.

"It's not that simple," I replied, standing up and towering over her.

"It _is_ that simple. We're the same! Even Sonya says we are. We've always been the same, and we're both acting the same stupid way now. We hold ourselves up to a higher standard than everyone else." I frowned.

"I-Sonya? What does she have to do with any of this?" Rose flushed delicately.

"She said our auras match. She said we light up around each other. She says it means that you still love me and that we're still in sync and-" She sighed as I felt my breath catch, wondering if it was that obvious. Spirit was a pain in the arse. Rose wandered over to the window. "I don't know, I shouldn't have mentioned it. We shouldn't buy into this aura stuff when it comes from magic users who are already half-insane."

She leaned against the glass pane, her reflection on the window solemn. I watched her silently, waiting for something, anything. A decision? Maybe. She took a single, deep breath.

"If I let this stop me," she murmured, "if I do nothing...then that's the greater evil. I'll do more good by surviving. By continuing to fight and protect others."

"What are you saying?" I asked, taking a subconscious step closer.

"I'm saying...I forgive myself. That doesn't make everything perfect, but it's a start. Who knows? Maybe that outburst in the parking lot let out some of the darkness that Sonya says is in my aura. Skeptic that I am, I have to give her some points. She was right that I was at a breaking point, that all I needed was a spark." The room was silent for a second, and I felt my heart thump widly against my chest in that moment of indecision. There stood Rose, oblivious to what I was possibly about to reveal, what I could possibly bring upon us. I closed my eyes and then reopened them.

"She was right about something else too," I murmured softly, Rose turning towards me with her eyebrows raised.

"What's that?" she wondered.

"That I do still love you." Admitting it aloud felt so perfect yet so scary at the same time. What would she think? What would happen if there was a secret camera and Adrian could hear my every word?

Yet, looking at Rose, staring into her beautiful brown eyes, I didn't care anymore. I was _glad_ that I'd admitted. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

"Since...since when?" she asked after a long pause. I shrugged.

"Since...forever." I'd never really stopped loving her. "I denied it when I was restored. I had no room for anything in my heart except guilt. I especially felt guilty about you-what I'd done- and I pushed you away. I put up a wall to keep you safe. It worked for a while-until my heart finally started accepting other emotions. And it all came back. Everything I felt for you. It had never left; it was just hidden from me until I was ready. And again...that alley was the turning point. I looked at you...saw your goodness, your hope, your faith. Those are what make you beautiful. So, so beautiful."

"So it wasn't my hair," she joked. I smiled.

"No. Your hair was beautiful too. All of you. You were amazing when we first met, and somehow, inexplicably, you've come even farther. You've always been pure, raw energy, and now you control it. You're the most amazing woman I've ever met, and I'm glad to have had that love for you in my life. I regret losing it. I would give anything-_anything-_in the world to go back and change history. To run into your arms after Lissa brought me back. To have a life with you. It's too late, of course, but I've accepted it."

"Why...why is it too late?"

"Because of Adrian. Because you've moved on." I saw her beginning to protest. "No, listen. You were right to do that after how I treated you. And more than anything else, I want you to be happy once we clear your name and get Jill recognised. You said yourself that Adrian makes you happy. You said that you love him."

"But...you just said you love me. That you want to be with me." Oh, Rose. Poor, conflicted Rose.

"And I told you: I'm not going to pursue another man's girlfriend. You want to talk honour? There it is in its purest form." She took a couple of steps towards me and I processed what I had said. I couldn't go back now. Was her reaction good or bad? Did I want her to doubt her relationship with Adrian? On the surface, no. But my instinct told me to be jealous. And jealous I was.

She reached me and we stared into each other's eyes, getting lost in our own private world for a second. She placed a hand on my chest, splaying her fingers out, her touch hot through my shirt. I reached out and grabbed one of her wrists, just holding it there, feeling the smoothness of her skin.

"You should have told me," she told me. "You should have told me this a long time ago. I love you. I've never stopped loving you. You have to know that." Any progress I had made disappeared when she said those words, and I gasped. Rose loved me. Somebody loved me, and it was Rose. Who needed forgiveness when they had love? Wasn't this what we always strived for? Was this the purpose of us? To find love? Was this my absolution?

"It wouldn't have made any difference, not with Adrian involved. I mean it. I won't be that guy, Rose. I won't be that man who takes someone else's woman. Now, please. Let go. Don't make this any more difficult." Of course, I'd completely forgotten that it was _me_ holding onto _her. _

"I don't belong to him." She inched closer to me, our chests nearly touching when I inhaled. Inner turmoil wracked my mind and heart. What was I supposed to do? I needed to keep my honour. I couldn't just expect her to get back with me now. I couldn't expect her to just drop Adrian, who'd been there when I wasn't. I couldn't take her from him. Yet, how was I supposed to resist her like this? She was exploiting my feelings and I knew it, yet I couldn't find it in me to blame her. "I don't belong to anyone, I make my own choices."

"And you're with Adrian." It was my last defence. Surely, if she really loved Adrian, she would defend him here, she would back away from me. I knew I was about to crumble, but I needed her permission first.

"But I was meant for you."

The world stopped spinning. That was what I'd been aching to hear. For so long, just to confirm that my feelings were reciprocated, that we both felt the same way, to confirm that what I was doing could be defined as 'the right thing'. Any pretence of honour fell away as Rose's hands cupped my face, bringing our lips together. This time, I didn't break away. She didn't punch me and I didn't deny her. Instead, I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her onto the far more comfortable bed. I'd missed this so much. I'd missed having a relationship. I'd missed the taste of cherry lipgloss, I'd missed the soft waves of her hair, I'd missed the smooth curve of her back. I'd missed the explosion of lust when her tongue touched mine, followed by an overwhelming wave of love when our eyes locked.

I slid one hand down her thigh and bunched my hand in the bottom of her ripped dress, sliding it up her leg. She pressed herself further into me, our lip still kissing, our chests together, as I began to slid the dress over her head. We broke apart only for Rose to wiggle out of the dress, resuming our embrace afterwards as she fumbled with the zip of my trousers blindly.

Not once did I think back to that day in the cabin. Because, unbelievably, this evening was better than that day. We'd been wary, then, anxious about whether anybody would find us. We'd had to be on watch, making sure nobody came by. And the day had been spoiled by the events following. This evening, however, we had to ourselves. Nobody could interrupt us, nothing could stop us brining our bodies together at last, and I had to blink back tears as I realised just how much I'd missed her. So much more than I had realised. My soul cried for her as she lay above me, her lips touching mine briefly, her skin dewily flushed. It was like everything came down to this moment, as if all our problems were solved. We were invincible in that moment.

Even during the afterglow, I felt like there was a protective bubble around us, as I held Rose in my arms. She curled up against me and smiled blissfully.

"I'm glad you gave in. I'm glad your self-control isn't as good as mine," she joked. I chuckled.

"Roza, my self-control is ten times stronger than yours," I informed her with a grin.

"Oh yeah? That's not the impression I just got."

"Wait until next time. I'll do things that'll make you lose control in seconds." I felt a playful smirk begin to flicker at the edge of my smile, but after a moment, when Rose gave no witty reply, I frowned.

"There may not be a next time," she said suddenly. I froze.

"What? Why?"

"We have a couple of things to do before that happens again."

Oh. Right. I'd forgotten about our responsibilities.

"Adrian?" I guessed. She nodded.

"And that's _my_ problem, so put your honourable thoughts aside. I have to face him and answer for this. I will. And you...You still have to forgive yourself if we're going to be together." My face creased up.

"Rose..."

"I'm serious. _You_ have to forgive yourself. For real. Everyone else has. If you can't, then you can't go on either. We can't." I nodded and swallowed nervously.

"I don't know," I told her honestly. "I don't know if I can...if I'm ready."

"Decided soon then. You don't have to right this moment, but eventually..." We didn't take the topic any further, choosing instead to stay wrapped in each other's arms. I watched as her eyes flickered closed, her beautiful features smoothing out peacefully as she fell asleep in my arms. I smiled to myself, happy with myself for once. Nothing could hurt us in that moment. Nothing at all.

**Songs that inspired this chapter: 11pm by The All-American Rejects**

**Leave Out All The Rest by Linkin Park**


	27. Chapter 30 and 31

**Thanks so much for all the feedback! I'm glad you liked the story and the last chapter :D**

**This is another chapter merger, since I doubt Dimitri did much other than sleep whilst Rose was in Lissa's head.**

I woke up at my usual time, my internal body clock waking me at a suitable time. Somehow, I still felt a lingering bliss after last night, and I rolled over, intending to wrap my arms around Rose, only to find her sat up with her eyes glazed over. I sighed, wondering what she was seeing in Lissa's head, and glanced at the clock. We'd have to leave soon, but I couldn't really force her to get out. Who knew? Something important could be happening. I didn't want to take any risks.

So instead I crawled out of bed and put on some boxer shorts before heading for the bathroom and quickly started shaving. As I was rinsing my face free of the gel, there was a knock on the door. I quickly dried my face, saying, "Just a second!" to the door. Sonya's Moroi hearing would've been able to hear, thankfully, so I wouldn't disturb Rose. I quickly threw on my clothes, not wanting to talk to Sonya in just my underwear, and then went to open the door. She stood on the other side of the threshold, looking a bit impatient. I could've sworn I saw the first traces of a smirk on her face and I tried my best to assume it wasn't to do with Rose and I. Although it probably was.

"We need to leave," she told me. "The front desk called about our check-in. Said it looks a bit suspicious. I say we leave before we get in trouble." I nodded in understanding.

"Straight to Court, yeah?" I asked.

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Shall we go now? Where's Rose?" She began to step in but I stopped her.

"Rose is still sleeping. I didn't want to wake her, but I'll probably have to now." Something told me Sonya knew better, but she turned away anyway.

"I'll meet you in the lobby in five minutes." And with that, she left. I rolled my eyes and closed the door, heading back to the bed. I shook Rose's shoulder gently, but to no response.

"Rose," I called her. "Rose." She blinked and slowly took in her surroundings, probably suddenly switching from the Court to our little hotel room. "We have to-"

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "You will not _believe_ what I just saw!" I froze, her shocked expression alerting me.

"Is Lissa okay?"

"Yeah, fine, but-" I felt myself relax. As much as I would like to hear her story, we really needed to get going.

"Then we'll worry about that later. Right now, we have to leave."

"What's going on?"

"Sonya came by-don't worry." I felt a small smile curl the edges of my lips as her eyes widened. "I got dressed and didn't let her come in. But she said the front desk called. They're starting to realise we had an unusual check-in. We need to get out of here."

"No problem," Rose said, throwing off the covers and proceeding to get out of bed. I couldn't help that my eyes were drawn to her body. Any man would've been, especially after last night. Especially after knowing her, and loving her, for almost a year. She smirked.

"See something you like?" she teased. I recalled the last time she'd said that to me, but I'd given her a very different answer.

"Lots," I replied, not bothering to look away. She obviously didn't want me to. I stared her down and she turned her head, starting to get dressed.

"Don't forget," she murmured. "Don't forget..."

"I know, Roza. I haven't forgotten." How could I possibly forget the massive task she wanted from me? How on earth was I supposed to forgive myself?

Rose pulled her shoes on and then stood up brightly. I reached out for her hand but then pulled my arm back before she could notice. She wouldn't be with me if I didn't forgive myself. And we certainly couldn't be together in public. _Watch yourself_, I chastised myself. We headed down to the lobby together, where Sonya and Jill were waiting for us, and piled into the car, heading off on our journey.

"I need you to make a charm," Rose told Sonya once we were driving. "And we have to stop in Greenston."

"Greenston?" I asked, my brow furrowing. "What for?"

"It's where the Alchemists are being held...And it's where we're going to find proof that Daniella Ivashkov murdered Tatiana."

I almost had to stop the car.

"Daniella Ivashkov?" Sonya and I both exclaimed.

"How could you possibly come to that conclusion?" Sonya inquired. Rose explained her theory, complete with evidence she'd collected via Lissa. And, if I was being seriously honest, I could actually see her point. Daniella hadn't liked Tatiana, or her policies. If there were physical evidence against her, that would be all we needed to clear Rose's name. I felt an unmistakable swell of excitement as I realised she would finally be dropped of her criminal charges, if we could just find proof.

Rose disappeared into Lissa's head yet again, and we continued our journey. There wasn't much conversation; we'd exhausted all things to talk about. Sonya was making a charm for Rose and Jill stared absently out of the window. I drove mostly in silence, wanting to put the radio on but not wishing to disturb anybody else.

When Rose blinked back to the present for the second time that morning, my gaze slid across to her briefly.

"That's a dangerous look," I informed her.

"What look?" she wondered, playing innocent, despite the fact that I was obviously on her trail.

"The one that says you just got some idea."

"I didn't just get an idea. I got a _great_ idea." I sighed, wondering what Rose's next crazy plan was. Hopefully not anything that could get us killed this time. Rose turned in her seat to talk to Jill.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked her.

"I'm not sure," Jill replied. "A lot's kind of happened. And I don't really get what's going to happen next. I feel like...like some kind of object that's going to be used in someone's master plan. Like a pawn." And, in a sense, she was right. Had we considered what Jill felt? Yes. Sort of. But we were the only ones who even thought of it. As soon as we got to Court, Jill would get princess status, and everything would change for her. It was bound to be difficult.

"You're not an object or a pawn. But you're very, very important, and because of you, a lot of good things are going to happen."

"It won't be that simple though, will it? Things are going to get worse before they get better, aren't they?" Jill was far more intelligent than she appeared. She seemed older than the first time I'd met her only four months ago, like an adult in a teenager's body.

"Yeah. But then you'll get to contact your mum...and, well, like I said, good things will happen. Guardians always say, 'they come first,' when talking about Moroi. It's not exactly the same for you, but in doing this...well..." _Nice, Rose. Very tactful. _

"Yeah, I get it. It's for the greater good, right?"

The conversation ended. About half an hour from Greenston, Sonya present Rose with the charmed bracelet she'd been working on for most of the journey. Rose slipped it on her wrist.

"Well?" she asked, obviously expecting something to happen.

"I don't see anything," Sonya told her, "but then, I wouldn't."

"You seem a little blurry...like I just need to blink a few times," Jill added.

"Same here," I said, simply because I felt the need to have some input.

"That's how it should look to people who know she's got the charm on," Sonya informed us with a proud smile. "Hopefully, to the other guardians, she'll be wearing a different face." _Oooh. Creepy._

It was 11.30 when we reached Greenston and Rose guided us to the restaurant she'd arranged to meet somebody in. She'd been keeping everything secret from us for the whole journey, so when we parked near to another black car, I was very curious about who was inside. We got out of our own car at the same time the black car's door opened. As I locked our car doors, I saw Mikhail step out of the driver's side, and I felt a small smile tug at my lips when I remembered that Sonya was in the car.

As I turned to Rose, however, I saw her shocked expression, and turned to see who she was facing.

Adrian had got out of the passenger side, with his trademark sneaky grin plastered across his face. I felt my stomach squeeze and all pretences of normality began to chip away at the surface. I'd betrayed him. I'd finally earned just a pinch of his trust, and then I'd made love with his girlfriend whilst he was out of the picture. No. There was no honour left here. I swallowed, not wanting her to have to face him alone, but not wanting to join them in case I gave something away.

Thankfully, neither had the chance to say anything, because Mikhail strode towards our group just as Sonya exited the car. The pair of them froze as they locked eyes, and I wondered how that must've felt for them. As I watched, Sonya cried out and ran into his arms, the pair of them crying as they embraced. I should've felt happy for them. I should've been pleased. Instead, I felt guilty and...slightly jealous. That was how out reunion should've been. The former Strigoi turned back again, running into the arms of the guardian that had tried and tried to save them.

"It's you...it's you," Mikhail kept repeating, and I realised that he hadn't been told we'd saved Sonya. What a pleasant surprise for him. He wouldn't care about anything except her now.

"Mikhail, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she cried between sobs as he brushed her hair back.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing matters except that we're together again." Sonya buried her face in his chest and his arms tightened lovingly around her. I turned away, allowing them a moment of privacy, and accidentally locked eyes with Rose. It was as if she was thinking exactly the same thing. As if her gaze was telling me that she wished to say all that to me and more, to allow me to be absolved of my sins, to rectify my wrongs.

Rose turned away from me and put an arm around Jill, and I suddenly felt all alone. Before I'd met Rose, I'd been so comfortable with alone. It was just me, a book and an occasional call from my family. I hadn't relied on anybody else. But seeing the couple embrace again, seeing Rose hug Jill like a sister, seeing Adrian watch Rose and revering her, solitude didn't seem so preferable any longer.

"Thank you," Mikhail began to say to Rose. "Thank you for this. Anything you need. Anything at all-"

"Stop, stop," Rose interrupted him, and I recognised the tell-tale roughness of tears in her voice. I wondered if Adrian would be able to tell, or whether he perceived her voice to be normal. Could her understand her like me? "I'm glad...glad to have done it, and, well...it wasn't really me at all."

"Still, you've given me my world back." His world. Exactly. A perfect description.

"I'm so happy for you. And I want you to have this, to enjoy this right now...but I have a favour. One more favour." Sonya and Mikhail exchanged knowing glances, both of them friendly with Rose now.

"I figured that's why he brought me here." 'He' being Adrian. Why was I still surprised that Adrian was here? He'd use any chance he got to see his girlfriend. Of course he would.

"I need you to get me into the hotel where the Alchemists are staying." Typical Rose, saying something that could wipe the smile off of even newly-rejoined lovers' faces.

"Rose...I can't get you into any place. You being this close to Court is dangerous enough."

"I'll have a disguise. They won't know it's me. Is there a reason you'd have to see the Alchemists?"

"They'll have guardians near their rooms. We could probably pass ourselves off as relief." I nodded.

"If it's too different from their scheduled shift change, it'll raise eyebrows...but hopefully you'll have long enough to get in and find out what you need," I told them. "The guardians are probably more worried about the Alchemists getting out than other guardians getting in."

"Absolutely. So it's you and me, Rose?"

"Yup," Rose replied. "The fewer, the better. Just enough to question Sydney and Ian. I guess everyone else waits here." Sonya quickly kissed Mikhail's cheek before saying,

"I'm not going anywhere."

"And I'm going to stay here and hear how on earth you got involved with this, Jailbait," Adrian teased, playfully nudging her arm, although Jill's smile was uneasy. I beckoned Rose around the other side of the car and ducked down.

"This is dangerous," I told her seriously. "If that charm fails, you probably aren't going to get out of that hotel." God knows what could happen to her. This would all have been for nothing. Her life would be over again.

"It won't fail," she answered, putting total trust in this bracelet. "Sonya's good. Besides, if we're caught, maybe they'll bring me back to Court instead of killing me. Imagine how much _that_ will slow the elections."

"Rose, I'm serious." Her hand grasped mine, reassuring me.

"I know, I know. This'll be easy. We should be in and out in under an hour, but if we aren't..." I couldn't even bear to consider that possibility. "If we aren't, then send Adrian to Court with Jill, and you and Sonya hide out somewhere until...I don't know."

"Don't worry about us. You just be careful."

To be honest, I don't know why I did it. Maybe it was all this talk about possibly not making it out. Maybe I was still overwhelmed by the last night, and the feeling of her hand still in mine. Either way, I shouldn't have kissed her forehead. Not in public. And either way, Adrian saw.

"Little dhampir, are you-" I heard his voice as he came around the corner, and pulled back immediately. But it was too late. Of course it was too late. Rose's hand fell from mine and I felt our responsibilities come crashing down on us. Everything I'd done, every thought I'd even considered. I was disgusted with myself for being so dishonourable.

"Let's hurry," Mikhail called, heading over obliviously. "Sonya says you guys have a ticking clock at Court, too." Rose nodded slowly.

"Yeah..." she stood up.

"Go," I told her, hoping that single word would convey everything I felt, all the regrets, all the apologies, all the love.

"Remember, talking to him is my responsibility, not yours," she told me so quietly, so that only I could hear. I swallowed, and then she was gone.

I resumed my role as guardian. Sonya and Jill were chatting excitedly together, a dazed smile on Sonya's face despite the clear nervousness on Jill's. I could smell the smoke from Adrian's cigarette, but did my best to ignore it, instead planning what I would eventually say to him.

Despite Rose telling me it was all down to her, I couldn't avoid him forever. She would tell him and I would...what? Apologise? Something told me an apology wouldn't be enough. I considered my actions. What if Rose decided to stay with Adrian? What if she placed the blame on me and kept dating him, denouncing me from her life? It would be all I deserved after what I'd done. _Honour_. I felt stupid even having considered it. So much for that.

Needless to say, it was a very awkward half an hour.


	28. Chapter 32

**Eeeeeeee we're nearly finished guys! How exciting is this?**

I stood in absolute silence. Nobody had a need to talk to me, so I didn't bother talking to anybody else. It was how I was when I'd first become a guardian, and how I'd been up until about half a year ago. Instead I reflected on how much Rose had changed me. Because I'd always been an introvert. I preferred to be alone than in a big group. I spent my evenings with a book and a mug of coffee. The people I got along best with were my family.

Yet Rose had come dancing into my life and changed me. I laughed more. I smiled more. I relaxed a little, enjoyed myself more. I started talking to the other guardians, made a few friends to hang out with on my breaks. Rose made me look at the world differently, made me try and see it from her point of view. She was such a different teenager to the way I was, the life of the party and a smile full of laughter. Rose had made me a better person.

And I'd retreated back into my shell when I shunned her. I started to become worse than I'd been before, not letting anybody in at all. I trusted nobody, not even myself. Yet all I needed was for her to grab my hand and fling me back into reality, into the real world, and I was whole again. I'd lost so much, and I wondered if I would ever be able to gain it back.

I'd mused over this far too much for my own good. I'd begun to doubt everything I knew just to make it fit in with my strange theories, but all that really mattered was that Rose still loved me. I felt complete knowing that, yet I also knew that I had to fill in a couple of cracks for everything to work properly. If that wasn't done soon, the plaster would crumble and everything would topple down. It was a decision I had to make, and I pretty much knew the path to take. I just wasn't sure how I would do it.

I began to pace as I thought, watching the area whilst still consumed by my own thoughts. I was the first to notice when Rose and Mikhail arrived back, and they gathered us around to tell us the news.

And news it was.

It was a miracle that I was able to keep a straight face in that moment. My emotions ran wild as I thought it through. Yes, all the evidence made sense and...no, I wasn't as surprised as I probably ought to have been. But I was still shocked. And betrayed, most of all. My head spun as I thought of the web of lies the suspect had woven and how Rose and I had been caught up in them. Did the murderer know that would happen? Did they know they were risking our safety? Of course. That was probably what hurt the most.

"Impossible," Adrian muttered, flinging his cigarette to the ground childishly and stamping on it. I hoped he was going to pick that up. "Your Alchemist pals are wrong."

"The motives are there..." Rose mumbled, almost as shocked by the betrayal as I was. "And they _are_ political. Ambrose was right."

"Ian's ID is hard evidence," I added. "But there are a lot of other holes, and lot of pieces that don't fit into it." Why was I trying to defend the suspect?

"Yeah. Like why _I _was set up for the fall." Everybody stayed silent, and I wondered if I was the only person that knew the answer. There was no way I was telling Rose.

"We need to get back," Mikhail announced. "Or I'm going to be missed."

"And you've got to make your debut," Rose told Jill, whose knees shook nervously.

"I don't know which is crazier, the killer's identity or that Jailbait's a Dragomir," Adrian said. Definitely the killer.

Sonya offered to stay behind as we travelled back to Court, as there weren't enough seats for all of us. Mikhail promised that he would be back soon and they embraced for the last time before we headed off once more. Adrian handed me a small bracelet, which was charmed with spirit to disguise me, and I slipped it on reluctantly, wishing I had my duster to hide it. I wondered how much convincing it had taken to get Adrian to make the charm for me, and I had Mikhail check it quickly just in case he made it wrong to get me into trouble. I had trusted him before, and I felt bad when the charm turned out to be genuine, but I wasn't sure just how unsteady our relationship was now.

On the journey to Court, Rose, Mikhail and I began to sift through the details.

"Motive? Yes. Paying off Joe? Yes. Access to Tatiana's chambers?" Rose ticked off the questions as we answered them. "...Yes." I glanced back at her from the passenger seat.

"Really?" I asked. "That was one piece I couldn't figure out."

"Pretty sure I know how she did it. But the anonymous letter to Tatiana doesn't make sense. Not to mention obscuring Lissa's family-or trying to kill her."

"We might be dealing with more than one person."

"Like a conspiracy?" I shook my head, having considering this.

"No, I mean, _someone_ else had a grudge against the queen. But not someone who'd go so far as to kill her. Two people, two agendas. Probably not even aware of each other. We're mixing up the evidence." We grew silent as we neared the Court. I heard Adrian and Jill talking quietly in the backseats next to Rose and closed my eyes, trying to act as inconspicuous as possible, training myself for our entrance.

There was a line of cars outside the Court, probably queuing to see the new king or queen crowned. We waited patiently in line until it was our turn. Mikhail was friends with the guardian at the gate, and having Adrian in the car was also an added bonus. After a quick check of the boot, which was empty, we were let through without a hitch. A collective sigh of relief rippled through the car.

"Oh my God," Rose breathed. "It worked."

"Now what?" Jill wondered as Mikhail parked the car.

"Now we re-establish the Dragomir line and call out a murderer."

"Oh, is that all?" Adrian remarked. I had to admit, his ability to make jokes in such a tense situation was as admirable as it was irritating.

"You know that the instant your illusions are dropped, you two are going to be jumped by guardians and thrown back into jail," Mikhail told us, "Or worse." I glanced at Rose, hoping she had a good plan.

"We know. But if everything works out...we won't have to stay there for long. They'll use what we've found out and then eventually set us free." I didn't realise Rose had been preparing to go back to jail. I thought she'd planned to be freed immediately. I wondered why she didn't tell me, how much selfless thought must've gone into bracing herself for this possibility.

We headed towards the ballroom where the elections were taking place. We managed to make our way into the ballroom, where Adrian came in handy once again. Thank God he's good for something.

As soon as we stepped into the room, I wanted to step out again. On top of the bundle of nerves settling in my stomach, the loud noise was overwhelming. Mine and Rose's excuse for being allowed in was the urgent need for guardians, but I hadn't realised quite how urgent that need had been. All I could hear were Moroi voices yelling at each other across the room. People were in large groups, obviously making little cliques of those with the same views, arguing their points. I gave Rose a wary look and she bit her lip.

"We need someone to get the room's attention," she told me. "Someone not afraid to make a spectacle-I mean, besides me, of course."

"Mikhail? Where have you been?" I heard a male voice inquire from behind me. Rose and I spun around.

"Well, speak of the devil," Rose laughed. "Exactly what we need." The devil indeed. Abe Mazur was standing behind us with his hands on his hips. He peered at Rose with a dent forming between his eyebrows.

"What's going on?" he demanded, probably wondering who we were.

"The usual, old man. Danger, insane plans...you know, the stuff that runs in our family." Abe squinted at her.

"Rose? Is that you? Where have you been?"

"We need the room's attention," she told him, ignoring his questions. "We've got a way to settle this whole argument."

"Well, we've at least got a way to start another one," Adrian muttered.

"I trusted you at my hearing. Can you trust me now?" Rose asked Abe.

"You apparently didn't trust me enough to stay put in West Virginia," he replied.

"Technicalities. Please. We need this."

"And we're short on time," I interjected. Abe turned to face me, as if noticing me for the first time. A first, considering my height and stature.

"Let me guess. Belikov?" I felt my lips twitch at the uncertainty in his voice. Who else?

"Dad, we have to hurry," Rose told him. "We've got the killer and we've got Lissa's...a chance to change Lissa's life." Abe sighed and scanned the room. Within seconds, Janine Hathaway appeared by his side.

"Who are these people?" she asked, her hand on her pocket where she obviously kept her stake.

"Guess," Abe muttered wryly. "Who would be foolish enough to break into Court after escaping it?"

"How-"

"No time." He cut her off. "I have a feeling half the guardians in this room are going to be all over us soon. Are you ready for that?"

"Yes."

"Me too," Mikhail added, not wanting to be left out.

"I guess there are worse odds," Abe sighed, scanning us. Rose and I, Janine, Mikhail and himself. It was a motley bunch, but a pretty powerful one at that.

He headed up to the podium placed at the front of the room and the royal candidates turned towards us. I saw emotions flicker across Lissa's face and she began to stand up, but sat back down as Rose gave her a barely noticeable shake of the head. Abe shoved Nathan out of the way and stood in front of the microphone. He placed is fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle that rang out across the room. I flinched at the feedback and felt a bit of sympathy for the Moroi sat next to the speakers.

"Now that you have the sense to keep your mouths shut," Abe began, "we have...some things to say." Abe Mazur is one of those men that always have confidence. He had absolutely no idea what we were about to announce-neither did I-yet he opened for us as confidently as if he'd been given a full schedule and script. Rose took the microphone.

"We're here to, uh, settle this debate once and for all. The laws can stay the way they are. Vasilisa Dragomir is entitled to her Council vote-and eligible to be a full candidate for the throne. There's another member in her family. She isn't the only Dragomir left," Rose told the crowd.

People began to murmur disbelievingly to themselves, but they were interested enough not to start a full chaos. Jill moved forwards towards Rose, pale and shaky but with her head held high.

"This is Jillian Mastrano Dragomir. She's Eric Dragomir's illegitimate daughter-but she _is_ his daughter and officially part of his bloodline."

"I _am_ a Dragomir," Jill announced into the microphone. "Our family has its quorum and my s-sister has all her rights."

"For those who don't believe this, a DNA test will clear up any doubts about her lineage," Abe added quickly, trying to stop an uprising. However, people began to shout anyway.

"Eric Dragomir didn't have any other children, illegitimate or not!"

"This is a scam!"

"Well...he was kind of a flirt."

"Show us the proof! Where are your tests?"

Turns out that people can get pretty defensive over a dead person.

"He _did_ have another daughter." The voice, so commanding and official, so clear and well-known, halted all arguments. Daniella Ivashkov was standing in the middle of the crowd, and everyone swivelled around and trained their eyes on her.

"Eric Dragomir had an illegitimate daughter with a woman named Emily Mastrano- a dancer, if I recall correctly. He wanted it kept secret and needed certain things done-things he couldn't do himself-to help with that. And honestly, I wouldn't have minded it staying secret either."

"Enough that you'd make certain papers disappear," Rose responded confidently. Daniella smiled.

"Yes."

"Because if the Dragomirs faded, spirit might too. And Adrian would be safe. Spirit was getting too much attention too fast, and you needed to get rid of any evidence about Jill to kill Vasilisa's credibility. Then why admit it now?"

"Because you're right. One DNA test will show the truth." People began to murmur, wondering if Daniella could possibly be telling the truth. They'd be more likely to believe her instead of the 'stranger', and definitely more so than the person under the costume. "What I'd like to know is: who in the world are _you_?"

The audience hushed and fixed their eyes on us. I hadn't said anything, instead standing like a soft lemon waiting for the signal. I wondered what Rose would do. It would be too much to hope that she'd just lie. She was a good liar, but she was also impulsive and reckless. Fuelled by rage, I knew exactly where this was going. Unfortunately, in our current position, I had no way of warning anyone. I just had to let it take its course.

Rose ripped off the bracelet and simply said,

"I'm Rose Hathaway," before her voice disappeared in the cacophony that followed.


	29. Chapter 33

At the same time, Adrian dropped my disguise and the pair of us were revealed to the astonished Moroi in the crowd. Almost immediately we were enclosed in a ring of guardians pointing handguns at us. I tensed and, as Janine and Mikhail rushed forwards to defend us, I moved to join them.

"Don't!" Rose ordered, flinging her hands up in front of her to show that she meant no harm. I followed suit reluctantly as she pleaded, "Wait. Please listen to us first."

We were completely surrounded with some familiar faces and others that I didn't recognise at all. They all stared at us determinedly but warily, as if we were dangerous criminals preparing to strike at them any minute now. And then I remembered that, in their minds, we were. I could think what their plan was. Move Janine and Mikhail out of the way, knock us down. It wouldn't be hard for all those guardians to get an advantage over our two defenders. At least, it wouldn't have been until Abe and Jill joined them. Adrian hadn't tried to defend us, but he was also caught up in the tight circle, which meant three potential Moroi tragedies if the guardians tried to take us out. We were safe. For now.

"Haul us off later, if you want," Rose told them. "We won't resist. But you have to let us talk first. We know who killed the Queen." Did she really know it all? Had she pieced everything together before I had?

"So do we," one of the guardians replied. "Now, the rest of you...back away before you're hurt. These are dangerous fugitives."

"They need to talk," Abe insisted. "They have evidence." There was a pause as the guardians mulled this over, although they didn't look too convinced.

"Let them talk." Another voice rang out around the room, a voice with unsteady authority but purpose, the weight of its name making it almost revered in the room. They couldn't disobey this voice. I saw a small smile briefly flicker on Rose's lips and Lissa pushed her way through the guardians and one of them held onto her arm so that she couldn't come closer to us.

"They've come this far," she continued, "They were right about...Jill. You've got them. They can't go anywhere. Just let them talk. I've got evidence to support their case too."

"I'd hold off on sharing that, Liss," Rose muttered, resulting in a perplexed look from her best friend.

"Let's hear them," Hans' loud voice suggested. "After an escape like they pulled, I'd really like to know what brought them back."

I cannot express in words how grateful I was to Hans in that moment.

"But I'm sure you two will understand we'll have to restrain you before you make your great reveal." I turned to Rose and sighed, knowing that this would be mortifying but it was the only way to get things done.

"Okay," I told our defenders, "It's okay. Let them through." Neither of them shifted.

"Do it. Don't end up as our cellmates," Rose told them. Only then did they begin to move away, and even that was a reluctant movement. As soon as they moved away from us, they were snatched away by guardians and we were locked in place by two guardians each, restricted completely. Lissa stood only a few feet away, watching Rose intently.

"Get on with it," Hans ordered Rose, squeezing her arm. I narrowed my eyes. Rose took a deep breath staring at the crowd and I watched her face carefully, waiting to see the emotions play out and wondering how she was going to deliver the news.

"I didn't kill Tatiana Ivashkov," Rose announced to the grumbles of many in the crowd. "I didn't like her. But I didn't kill her." She turned to Hans. "You've questioned the janitor who testified about where I was during the murder, right? And he ID'd the man who attacked Lissa as the one who paid him off to lie about where I was?" Hans nodded slowly. "There's no record of his existence-at least not with the guardians. But the Alchemists know who he is. They saw him at one of their facilities-acting as a bodyguard. A bodyguard for someone who was let in to see Tatiana on the night she died: Tasha Ozera." The audience was so stunned, only Tasha actually attempted to say anything. She leapt angrily to her feet with all the fire I knew she held inside her.

"What on earth are you saying, Rose? Are you out of your mind?" she cried, her face contorted with horror. For a moment, I believed that she was the same Tasha I'd always known and we'd made a horrible mistake.

"I wish I was...but it's true. We both know it is. You killed Tatiana."

"I never, _never_ believed you killed her-and I've fought for you on that. Why are you doing this? Are you playing on the Strigoi taint in our family? I thought you were above that kind of prejudice." Rose swallowed nervously, and I noticed a few on the crowd shift awkwardly as they watched the personal drama unfold as the truth was laid out in front of us.

"What I'm saying has nothing to do with Strigoi. I almost wish it did. You hated Tatiana for her age law and refusal to let Moroi fight." Somebody else at the back stood up.

"Half this court hated Tatiana for that law. You among them," he defended her. It was odd to finally see the Ozera family sticking up for its other members, and I wished it would've come before this disaster.

"I didn't have my bodyguard bribe a witness or attack Lis-Princess Dragomir," Rose retorted. "And don't pretend you didn't know this guy. He was your bodyguard. You were seen together.

"Rose, I can't believe this is happening, but if James-that was his name-did whatever you're talking about, then he acted alone. He always had radical ideas. I knew that when I hired him as outside protection, but I never thought he was capable of murder. I've always believed Rose was innocent. If James is responsible for this, then I'm more than happy to tell you what I know to clear Rose's name." Rose faltered. _Don't fall into the trap, Rose. Hold your own. You know she did this. You can't let her get away with it._ As much as I loved Tasha, I knew it was unsafe to keep her around.

"Rose, how can you say any of this?" Christian asked, standing up beside Tasha. "You _know_ her. You know she wouldn't do it. Stop making a scene and let us figure out how that James guy killed the Queen." I felt bad for Rose. I felt so, _so_ bad for her. With Christian added to the equation, Rose had to worry about hurting him too.

"James couldn't have staked Tatiana," Rose replied, her voice gaining strength again as she spoke. "He had an injured hand. It takes both hands for a Moroi to stake someone. I've seen it happen twice now. And I bet if you can get a straight answer out of Ethan Moore..." Said guardian was standing by the door with a group of others, all colour drained out of his face. "James wasn't there the night Tatiana died, was he? And I don't think Daniella Ivashkov was either, despite what Princess Dragomir was told earlier. But Tasha was. She was in the Queen's chambers-and you didn't report it."

"Tasha wouldn't kill anyone," Ethan answered slowly, shaking his head. Was that all the information he was going to offer? As if they couldn't look any more suspicious.

"Rose!" Christian yelled. "Stop it!" His face was caught between anger and shock, and I tried to imagine the inner conflict he was going through.

"I know it's wrong," Lissa began, "but if we used compulsion on the suspects..."

"Don't even suggest that!" Tasha exclaimed. "Stay out of this! Your future's on the line here. A future that could make you great and achieve the things our people need." _Wrong choice of words, Tasha,_ I thought to myself. I think many of us came to the same realisation in that moment.

"A future you could manipulate," Rose gasped, saying what we were all thinking, as per usual. "Lisa believes in a lot of the reforms you do...and you think you could convince her of one's she doesn't. Especially if she's with your nephew. That's why you've fought so hard to change the quorum law. You wanted her to be queen." Christian began to move fowards, anger clearly dominating his face, but Tasha held him back.

"That's idiotic," Christian replied. "If she wanted Lissa to be queen, why make that James guy attack her?" Rose faltered, so I stepped in for her.

"Because no one was supposed to die," I answered simply, talking to Tasha. "You didn't expect a guardian to be with her. James was probably going to fake an attack and run...enough to generate sympathy and more support for Vasilisa. Which it certainly did-just a little more severely." People always went for the sympathy vote.

Tasha stared right back at me, her icy blue eyes softening slightly.

"Dimka, not you too," she murmured, only just loud enough for me to hear. I stared her down, unwilling to let my friend-could I still call her that?-win me over this time.

"And that's why I took the fall," I heard Rose whisper to herself.

"Hmm?" I wondered, but she shook her head. I frowned, confused by these two women, both accused of killing the queen, both of whom I had some sort of history with. It was just typical that quiet Dimitri Belikov had managed to get himself in a mess by being attracted to the lively ones.

"You can take me into custody," Rose announced, speaking to the guardians now. "I meant what I said. But don't you think you've got enough to take her-and Ethan-in too?" The crowd held their breath as we waited for a decision. Hans nodded sharply.

"Take Lady Ozera. And Moore. We'll question them," he ordered the other guardians. The guardians made their way over to Tasha, who was very unhelpfully seated in the middle of a frightened crowd. They reached out to grab her, but she shoved them back. I winced as I remembered how she'd trained, how she'd learned to fight. I'd even taught her a little bit. Not nearly as much as I'd taught Rose, but certainly enough to defend herself. When one of the guardians was knocked down, I realised we were really in trouble. Tasha was full of boundless energy and the passion to continue a fight. There was a very realistic possibility that she might make it out.

The chaos that was occurring below us was halted immediately by one single noise. A loud _bang_ echoed around the room and the Moroi dropped to the ground, guardians racing towards her now that the Moroi weren't in their way. Tasha turned to the closest person near her, holding a handgun she's somehow procured to this young girl's head. I recognised the girl as the one that Rose had punched at the disco almost a year ago. Hadn't they made friends after that? After we'd rescused them from the Strigoi fight? I couldn't remember her name, but it made no difference now. All I needed to know was that Tasha had picked the wrong hostage.

"Don't move!" Tasha screeched at everybody, pointing the gun to the girl's head with her finger firmly curled around the trigger. All it would need was a jolt and the girl would be dead. All the guardians froze. Tasha slowly picked her way through the crowd, dragging the annoyed Moroi along with her. The girl's jaw was set, and I suddenly wished I wasn't restrained by the guardians on stage. If they let us help, there would be six more people to help out. Rose was tensed in Hans' arms, and I wondered if she was going to try and break free, but then I realised where her eyes were trained. Lissa began to make her way towards Tasha. _No, no, no, Lissa, what are you doing?_

"Tasha, please don't-" Lissa's plea was cut off as Mia kicked back at Tasha, breaking free from the hold and sprinting away. Lissa had rushed forwards, trying to make eye contact with Tasha, and Tasha, confused as to what had just happened, panicked and did the only thing that made sense to her. She spun around, acknowledged somebody heading towards her, and curled her finger around the trigger.

I became aware of three very important things in that moment. The first thing was the expression of shock on Tasha's face, possibly as she realised just who she was firing at. The second thing was Lissa racing towards Tasha completely unaware that she was about to get killed. And third, probably the most important of all, was that Rose had wiggled her way out of the guardian's embrace. My heart thudded double time and I leapt towards her, not entirely sure what I was planned to do but desperate anyway. Because I knew Rose. Rose, always wanting to help her friends, always trying to do anything to protect others. Rose, who had risked her life for those she loved so many times. Rose, who was, inevitably, going to get shot.

I should've known that there was nothing I could do.

I should've known that I wouldn't get there in time.

The bullet wedged itself in Rose's chest and she fell to the floor with a strangled cry. I landed beside her just as Lissa laid her down carefully so that she wouldn't smack her head on the hard floor. Beyond caring about guardian protocol, I knelt down beside Rose, completely unaware of what was going on around me. Rose blinked up through a veil of tears, her warm brown eyes searching for something beyond her grasp. She blinked rapidly.

"Rose, stay with me, Rose!" I yelled, almost as if she had control over herself. Lissa was sobbing beside me, her hands over Rose as she tried to summon her magic. _Why aren't you doing anything?_ I wanted to scream at her. _What use is your power if you're just going to let her die? _

"Rose, please, Rose. Rose please don't do this to me, please don't leave me, Rose," I begged, tears filling my own eyes and dripping onto her chest as she blinked up at me. Her mouth moved slightly, a choked sound making its way through. I bit my lip, hands over her chest, ready to begin CPR if necessary. She smiled at me, tears staining her cheeks. She blinked one last time and, this time, her eyes didn't open.

"Rose!" I yelled. "Rose, Rose, Roza, Roza, please, open your eyes again! Please open your eyes, please." I pressed my head against her chest, seeking a heartbeat, seeking the warmth I'd slept against only last night, but finding nothing. "Rose. Rose, please." My voice started to lose strength, my please reduced to hoarse whispers as I began to sob. I buried my face into my hands, not even worried about embarrassing myself in front of everybody else. She was dead.

Rose, the love of my life, the only thing worth living for, was dead.


	30. Chapter 33b

**Been allowed a little freedom with this chapter, since Rose is 'dead'. Thanks again for all your support :D**

**When Anger Shows- Editors**

I turned to Lissa, watching as her slender form shook with overflowing tears, and scowled. She turned towards me, her face marred with wet streaks, searching for my comfort. I couldn't find any to give her. Ice-cold, I stared her down.

"Dimitri?" she asked tentatively. "What are we going to do?"

"Why the hell are you asking me?" I retorted through gritted teeth. I watched her visibly flinch at my harsh tone, eyes wide. She'd never seen me like this before. Nobody had seen me quite like this before, except maybe my mother. This was different from a Strigoi's rage. This was fuelled by emotion, this was a desperate grasp for my sanity as it flew out of my reach.

"I-I thought you might have a p-plan..." her voice trailed away.

"No, Vasilisa, I don't have a plan. Do you think I would make a plan? 'Oh, by the way, if Rose dies, this is what we're going to do, are you okay with that?' You think I know anymore about this than you do?"

"Well, you're usually so...calm and collected. I thought you might know what to do."

"Well, I don't. I have no idea. She's dead. She's the only one that knew what she wanted. She's the only one that knew any of it and she's dead," I spat, my voice wobbling as I narrowly avoided descending into the abyss. "Why didn't you do anything?" I felt my voice break, my eyes refilling themselves with saltwater.

"I...I-" She looked up at me with helpless jade eyes and I stared her down with my own.

"What use is your magic if you can't use it when you need to? You could've saved her, Lissa! You could've brought her back! Why didn't you do anything?" My arms flew out without my consent, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.

"Dimitri, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't do it," she explained solemnly, tears audible in her voice.

"Well, why not? _Why not?" _

"Dimitri, stop, look, this hurts me too. I'm her best friend, and I'm sorry I couldn't save her but you can't just-Dimitri, _stop_, you're hurting me. Let go!"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING?" I roared, gripping her shoulders until my fingers left bruises through her dress. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE HER? What use are you Moroi when your magical powers can't do anything, when they only work when you're stable? What do you do? What is the purpose of you? Why are we so busy protecting you, why do we die for you? What is the _point_?"

I felt strong hands grab my shoulders but, instead of resisting them, allowed them to drag me away, watching as Lissa's wide-eyed form stared at me from beside Rose's body. I was carried through the crowds, having suddenly lost the ability to move for myself, and let them lead me out of the ornate hall.

As soon as I reached fresh air, my brain kicked into gear and allowed me to function again. I assured my bodyguards that I could walk for myself, but they still kept a strong hold on my arms. They walked me back to the jail cell and threw me in, locking the door behind me. I listened as their footsteps died away, heard the slamming of the front door, and then collapsed onto the floor.

I have no idea how long I was lying there. I pressed my face into the cool concrete, pounding the floor and screaming until my throat was hoarse. Roza, my Roza. It was all my fault. If I'd have been quicker on the mark, not so distracted by Tasha's betrayal, it would've been me in her place. Rose would be alive, Rose would be free, Rose would grow up and protect Lissa, just as she had always done.

But she wouldn't. Because she was dead.

I dragged myself to the corner of the cell where I curled up, hugging my knees to my chest and feeling sorry for myself. I had never imagined it would happen like this. We were supposed to go down together; it was supposed to be noble. We promised we'd go down in a fight. She came to save me from being a Strigoi, now it was my turn to save her. She'd survived so much and what had she been taken out by? A deranged Moroi with a gun. I could've laughed. But I didn't.

I spent a few hours remembering her as she was, treasuring the pictures in my mind. Me teaching Rose how to punch; the look of joy on her face when she successfully staked her first 'Strigoi'; the snow decorating her rich, brown hair; the first time I saw her again through my renewed eyes; the way the light lit her from behind, like an angel from heaven, in that alleyway; the feeling of her body pressed against mine last night when I held her close. Rose, the glorious protector, always putting others before herself, except for when a bullet was headed towards them. She was always willing to give herself up and that was something I planned to be inspired by.

My head eventually cleared, and I wondered what was happening outside. Through a tiny hole in the wall I could see that it was getting light, and the day was nearly over. Were they planning her funeral? Was Lissa sobbing into Christian's arms? I wished I was out there with them, trying to protect them like I was meant to be, trying to organise things like I could've been if our relationship wasn't a secret.

In fact, I was supposed to be out there. Hadn't we just outed Tasha as the murderer? Hadn't I proved my worth enough to be freed? Surely my display back in the ballroom had shown that I was capable of emotion. Unless, of course, I was in here for assaulting a Moroi. That was always a plausible option.

I slept on the floor that night, trying not to think about how we'd broken free, how we'd travelled half of America, combating our inner fears and desires, and yet I was back in exactly the same place that I'd been a month ago. Except this time, I didn't have anything to hold onto.

Early the next morning, I heard footsteps heading towards my cell again. I glanced up, peeking through a fringe of hair, and my eyes widened. Lissa was standing before me, dressed in simple slacks and a shirt, her hair arranged as neatly as ever. I got to my knees, ready to begin grovelling, but she stopped me before I could start.

"I know, Dimitri. I understand," her voice was as soft and forgiving as it had been the first time around and I felt tears beginning to well in my eyes again. Where had the old Dimitri gone? "Listen, there's a lot I have to tell you. Do you want to come for a walk with me?" It was then that I realised she wasn't accompanied by guards. Surely, as a princess meeting a potential Strigoi, she'd have to be surrounded by guardians?

Still, I heard the keys rattling as she twisted them in the lock, and the door swung open. I ruffled my hair into a suitable position and stalked out of the cell, taking a breath of the air. It tasted exactly the same, but I felt much better for it. I saw Lissa smiling at me out of the corner of my eye and took that moment to apologise.

"I'm so unbelievably sorry for my behaviour yesterday and if you could ever forgive me, I would be eternally grateful," I told her earnestly. "I was just...overwhelmed. And I'm really, truly sorry."

"Honestly, looking back now, I would've been surprised if you'd acted any other way. I should've seen it coming. It's not your fault, don't worry about it." The corners of her lips were still turned up and I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What aren't you telling me?" Her smile grew and she led me outside where we sat on a bench. I looked up at the sky above us, admiring the colours of the early morning. The sun was sinking behind the Court buildings and dark purple was bleeding into the sky, stars winking at us from up in the heavens.

"Dimitri." She took a deep breath and reached for one of my hands, forcing me to look into her eyes. "Rose isn't dead."

In that moment, I swear, my world stopped and rewound. I saw every event from the past day, right back to the previous night, right back to when she looked into my eyes and told me that she loved me. I felt my breath catch as I stared at Lissa, desperate for an explanation, anything that would make me believe she was telling the truth.

"H-how?" I stammered.

"The bullet just missed her heart. It was very close, but they managed to get her into the hospital quickly enough to keep her heart beating. Emergency surgery took place and now she just needs a few days to recover. She's unconscious, but she's alive." A blazing smile spread across her face and I felt my own muscles begin to work, stretching my face as the biggest grin known to man appeared on my own features.

"She's alive. She's alive. I can't believe it." Lissa laughed as all the air left my lungs and I swept her up in my arms. She wrapped her own arms around me and we rocked together, happy tears spilling into her hair as I held her close. Rose was alive! Typical Rose, too stubborn to stay dead for too long. I would get to see her again. I would get to see her eyes sparkle, get to wrap my arms around her and bury my face in her soft hair again. Everything was possible.

"How come I've been allowed out?" I asked, my face still stretched into an almost-painful smile.

"I requested it. We know you're innocent, so I asked for the motion to be passed and it seems that most people in Court agreed with me. Some of them might still be a bit wary, but you're a free man again. You can do whatever you like now, Dimitri. You could apply for an official guardian position if you wanted to."

Lissa's words were the glue sealing all the pieces of my shattered life back together again, and I was able to take my hands away from it without it crumbling into dust. No longer did I have to rely on simply my own strength to hold myself together; I was a free man. Nobody was after me, nobody would shy away from me anymore, nobody could take away my future.

"How come?" I breathed in amazement. She bit her lip, pale face flushing delicately.

"I got voted Queen," she mumbled. I felt my mouth fall open as I gaped at her.

"You...they voted you in?" She nodded.

"I'm in charge of the Moroi now. They have to do as I say." I slid off the bench, kneeling in front of her.

"Your Majesty, I can't thank you enough-" She cut me off with a wave of her hand.

"No, no, don't give me all that Queen-y crap. We're friends, you know. I'm not expecting that from anyone, really, especially not you. I don't want to be Queen at all."

"But...why not? This is brilliant for you, Lissa! You can define the rules now. You can sort out all the problems that we had with Tatiana, and I'm sure you'll get some brilliant guardians to take care of you."

"I requested Rose," she told me with a sunny smile. "And it got given the all-clear. As soon as she's healed, she'll be looking after me, just as we always planned."

"How about me? Where am I going to go?" She shrugged.

"Wherever you want to. Just put a request in and I'll speak to Hans about it. You can get an extra recommendation from me, so it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll get the position you asked for." She gave me a wink. "Although I heard that Christian is in need of an extra guardian now that he's Lord Ozera." We both chuckled at the thought of Christian as a Lord.

"I might take up your suggestion."

I spent most of the rest of the day wandering around the Court, taking in my new status as a free man. I headed back to where Rose had been living before she was convicted and put all her belongings in boxes, balancing them precariously on top of each other as I carried them to the Palace housing. Lissa had assigned us our own joint apartment and I dumped her boxes there. As I was heading back to get the last one, however, I caught Adrian's eye in the corridor. He scowled at me and I swallowed the lump in my throat, ignoring him as I passed. I was reminded that, just because Rose was alive, not everything was perfect. There was still a lot we had to fix, and it wasn't going to be easy.

After I'd arranged our stuff, I headed down to the infirmary and was led to Rose's room. She was lying in a bed, dressed in one of those awful hospital gowns. Wires were travelling from various different machines into her arms and up her nose, and there was a tube in her throat to keep her breathing. The sight of her was like a punch in the face; I'd never seen her looking so frail. The gown was covering her wound, so I had no idea how large the damage was. Maybe it was better off that way.

I sat by her bedside for a long time, simply holding her hand and listening to the steady beeping of her heart monitor. Lissa had said she would be recovering for several days, and I arranged with the doctors when I could take her back to our own apartment. And then I just sat and talked to her. I told her about how beautiful the sky had looked when Lissa told me the good news, and I told her about our apartment and how comfortable it was, and I told her that she was Lissa's guardian and asked her how it felt to have accomplished so much in her life. I didn't get an answer, but that was alright. I'd just ask her when she opened her eyes. I'd waited a whole year for our relationship to finally make sense; two days really wasn't that much.

**Yellow-Coldplay**


	31. Chapter 34

I was wrong. Those two days were an incredibly long time to endure, and I found myself pacing the room over and over. I'd been allowed to bring Rose back to our room, and she was resting in our bed. Every so often, I would pause and sit in the chair beside her bed, taking her limp hand in mine and stroking the soft skin. She looked peaceful in sleep, an expression I hadn't seen in an incredibly long time, and her rich chestnut hair was spread across the pillows.

When I wasn't with Rose, I was busy doing errands for Lissa and the other Moroi. I had many duties to do, and I was desperate to impress Hans after placing my request for Christian Ozera to be my charge. Even when I received the part, which Hans presented to me with a firm handshake, a warm smile and a whispered, "Welcome back," I still couldn't muster up the courage to celebrate like I would've done if the situation had been different.

I knew in the back of my mind that I should probably call my family and let them know about everything that had happened in the past few months, but decided to prolong the call until Rose was awake to do it with me. I knew I would need her strength and moral support when trying to convince my family that I wasn't an evil bloodsucker anymore.

On the third day, by which time I was getting restless despite my constant exhaustion, I was sat by Rose's bed and talking to her about my first duties as Christian's guard and commenting on her new status as Lissa's head guardian.

"Head guardian for the Queen, Roza! This is going to be such a fantastic journey," I told her, "As soon as you wake up, I'm...I'm..." I faltered as I watched her on the bed, her hand twitching slightly. I paused in my speech, pulling away and leaning back into the chair. I'd been told not to crowd her when she woke up just in case there was any damage to her body that we were currently unaware of.

The next half an hour was agonising. I sat in hushed silence, watching Rose as her body gradually began to awaken. Her eyelids flickered, lashes fluttering against tanned skin, and then her eyes slowly opened to reveal those chocolate irises I'd always loved. I held my breath as her eyes flickered around the room, taking in her situation and adjusting to it.

"Sleeping Beauty awakens," I murmured. A smile flickered across her full lips and I felt a matching one grace my own face.

"Are you my nurse?" she asked cheekily, her voice ever so slightly shaky but still the same as it had always been. I pushed myself off the chair and into her line of view, smiling down at her and hoping to convey how glad I was to see her. It seemed so long since I'd seen her smile, seen the slight flush in her cheeks and felt a healthy pulse underneath her silky smooth skin.

She tried to sit up to me when she saw me, but I chastised her until she laid down again.

"No, no, you need to lie down." She winced as she reclined again, and I noticed how she was slightly out of breath after such a tiny movement.

"Then come closer. I want to see you." I kicked off my shoes as Rose rolled onto her side, shuffling backwards to make room for me on the bed. I laid down next to her, curling my legs up to stop them taking up so much room. Her face was inches from mine, dark brown eyes staring directly into mine.

"Is this better?" I wondered, wanting to fulfil her every need.

"Much." A lock of hair fell onto her face, resting on her cheekbone, and it was too much to resist; I reached out to gently tuck it behind her ear, stroking her cheek.

"How are you?"

"Hungry." I chuckled. Typical Rose. Full to the brim with love for the girl beside me, I let my hand fall to her back, drawing her closer to me.

"Of course you are. I think they've only managed to get broth into you so far. Well, that and IV fluids early on. You're probably in sugar withdrawal." She winced slightly, nose turning up.

"How long have I been out?"

"A few days." Although it felt like years.

"A few days..." She visibly shivered, as if this information was startling to her, and I suddenly wondered if she remembered anything that had happened before. When she whispered,

"I shouldn't be alive," however, my suspicions were thankfully proved wrong. She nibbled on her bottom lip, obviously lost in thought as she tried to remember the events that led to her ending up in the bed. "Oh Lord, Lissa healed me, didn't she?"

"No, she didn't heal you," I informed her, hoping that he would come to the conclusion herself and see how truly heroic she was. Small dents formed between her eyebrows as her face contorted into an uncharacteristic frown.

"No? Then...Adrian? He'd never...after how I treated him...no. He couldn't have..."

"What, you think he'd let you die?" She might have done him wrong, and he might hate both of us from the bottom of his heart, but he'd never let Rose die when he obviously loved her so much. Rose swallowed but didn't say anymore. "No matter how he feels...Well, he wouldn't have let you die. He wanted to heal you. But he didn't either." The confusion on her face only grew clearer.

"Then who? Sonya?" I shook my head.

"No one. Well, you, I suppose."

"I...what?" She faltered, staring up at me with wide eyes.

"People can heal without magic now and again, Rose," I reminded her gently, a small smile flickering at my lips again. "And your wounds...they were bad. No one thought you'd survive. You went into surgery, and then we all just waited."

"But why...why /didn't/ Adrian or Lissa heal me?" She looked almost outraged, as if she couldn't comprehend why her best friend wouldn't try to save her life instead of letting her die.

"Oh, they wanted to, believe me. But in the aftermath, in the chaos...the Court went under lockdown. They were both taken away and put under heavy protection before they could act. No one would let them near you, not when they still thought you might be a murderer. They had to be certain about Tasha first, even though her own actions were pretty damning." I felt my lips pull down into a frown at the thought of my old friend, still unable to believe she could do such a thing.

"Is Tasha...still alive?" Her question was hesitant, and she looked away from me as she asked.

"Yes. They caught her right after she shot you- before anyone else could get hurt. She's detained, and more evidence has been coming in."

"Calling her out was one of the hardest things I've ever done," she admitted sorrowfully. "Fighting Strigoi was easier than that."

"I know. It was hard for me to see, hard for me to believe. But she made her choices, and all the charges against you have been dropped. You're a free woman now. More than that. A hero. Abe's bragging that it's all his doing." Indeed, I'd run into Rose's father several times over the past few days, and every time I'd seen him he'd been telling people about how he trained Rose in Russia- which I knew was a lie.

Rose smiled again, her teeth glinting between rosy lips.

"Of course he is. I'll probably get a bill from him soon." I chuckled, glad to see her joking around just as she usually did.

"So, what now?" she questioned after a moment of comfortable silence, my hand still rubbing her back soothingly.

"I'm not sure. I'm just so glad...so glad you're alive. I've been so close to losing you so many times. When I saw you on the floor, and there was so much commotion and confusion...I felt so helpless. I realised you were right. We waste our lives with guilt and self-loathing. When you looked at me there at the end...I saw it. You did love me." I just wished it hadn't taken Rose nearly dying for me to notice it.

"You doubted?"

"No. I mean, I knew then that you didn't just love me. I realised you had really forgiven me."

"There was nothing to forgive, not really." The words brought back too many memories of the night in the motel, not even a week ago.

"I've always believed there was. And that's what was holding me back. No matter what you said...I just couldn't believe it." I pulled back slightly, trying to make eye contact with her as I confessed my most personal thoughts. "Couldn't believe you would forgive all the things I did to you in Siberia and after Lissa healed me. I thought you were deluding yourself."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I've done that. But no, this time I wasn't."

I wondered what Rose meant, sure that she'd always consciously followed what she believed to be real instead of hiding the truth.

"I know, and with that revelation...in that split second that I knew you forgave me and that I really had your love, I was finally able to forgive myself too. All those burdens, those ties to the past...they went away. It was like..." I couldn't think of a word to describe the feeling.

"Being free? Flying?"

"Yes. Except...it came too late. This sounds crazy, but while I was looking down at you, having all these thoughts coming together in my head, it was like...like I could see death's hand reaching for you." It sounded even stranger when I said it out loud, and I'd thought it was weird the first time I considered what I saw. "And there was nothing I could do. I was powerless. I couldn't help."

"You did," she told me softly. "The last things I saw before blacking out were you and Lissa. I don't know how I survived getting shot, how I beat the odds...but I'm pretty sure your love-both of you-gave me the strength to fight through. I had to get back to you guys. God only knows what trouble you'd get into without me."

I resisted the urge to laugh at that, instead focusing on the sentiment shining through strongly. She came back for me. For Lissa as well, of course, but me all the same. She really loved me that much. I leant down to bring our lips together, so glad to feel that softness beneath my hands again. I stroked her face gently, worshipping her and praising her for her strength, before pulling myself back.

"Hey, what gives?" she protested, pouting at me.

"You're still recovering," I warned her, "You might think you're back to normal, but you aren't."

"This _is _normal for me. And you know, I thought with all this freedom and self-discovery and expression of our love stuff that we could finally stop with the whole Zen-master wisdom and practical advice crap." I grinned, so glad to hear her old jokes again.

"Roza, that's not going to happen. Take it or leave it." She pecked my lips sweetly.

"If it means getting you, I'll take it." She paused for a moment, her face falling slightly. "Dimitri...for real, what happens to us?"

"Life. It goes on. We go on. We're guardians. We protect and maybe change our world." I could feel myself falling into 'Zen master' mode again.

"No pressure. But what's the 'we' and 'guardians' part? I was pretty sure we were out of that career path." I felt my smile grow again. Obviously she hadn't heard me earlier.

"Mmm. Along with our pardons, we received our guardian status again."

"Even you? They believe you're not a Strigoi?" she cried, excited disbelief colouring her tone. I nodded. "Huh. Even if I got my name cleared, my ideal future was that we'd get filing jobs near each other." I couldn't hold in my secret any longer. I leaned closer, making sure she watched my face.

"It gets better: you're Lissa's guardian." Her eyes grew comically wide and she pulled back slightly, falling into the pillows again.

"What? That's impossible. They'd never..."

"They did. She'll have others, so they probably figured it was okay to let you hang around if someone else could keep you in line," I laughed, although it was half true. Lissa would definitely have too many guardians for comfort.

"You're not...you're not one of her guardians too, are you?" I could see the nervous glint in her eyes and knew what she was worried about, remembering when we spoke about it ages ago back at the Academy.

No, I have a different assignment."

"Oh."

"I'm Christian's guardian." She bolted up, her hair slightly mussed from where it was pressed against the bed, like a cute little hedgehog. I grinned at her.

"But that's...that's practically the same thing!"

"A little. But they won't be together every moment, especially with her going to Lehigh. He's not going...but they'll keep coming back to each other. And when they do, so will we. It's a good mix. Besides, I think you've proved to everyone that you're willing to put her life first." My face fell. I knew it was selfish of me, but I hoped that it wouldn't have to happen again.

Rose shook her head at me.

"Yeah, but no one was shooting at you. Only her." I felt a frown forming, having lost track of what she was talking about. Did she think that I was upset that she'd jumped in front of Lissa instead of me? Surely she knew that I'd never ask her to do that for me? Especially as she had to hold up the guardian oath. "You followed me when I jumped in front of Lissa, didn't you? Who were you going for? Me or her?"

I paused, not knowing what to say. My first initial instinct was to go for Rose. How could I possibly let her die? No, I'd definitely jumped for her, but how was I supposed to say that without revealing myself? How was I supposed to tell her that, despite warning her against letting her charge fall to second place, I had done so myself?

"I don't know, Roza. I don't know." She sighed in the silence.

"This isn't going to be easy."

"It never is," I reminded her, pulling her close to comfort her. She felt perfect in my arms, her natural warmth soothing me, and I felt like I might drift off until the door cracked open.

"Sorry," Lissa apologised, her eyes slightly wide as she took us in from the doorway, "Should have put a sock in the door. Didn't realise things were getting hot and heavy." Not that cuddling was exactly what I'd call hot and heavy, but I kept the thought to myself.

"No avoiding it," Rose brushed it off, her hand finding mine. "Things are always hot with him around." I paused, shocked into silence. My conscience kept screaming at me, not with Lissa in the room! Everything about this felt backwards, but then I remembered that we didn't have to hide our relationship any longer. Everything we felt was fine and nobody could separate us again, nor would they. Despite this, I wasn't sure how comfortable I was revealing this sort of private stuff to anyone other than Rose.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Rose teased. "Now that everything's out in the open." I was reminded of something I'd seen over the past couple of days and could feel heat growing in my cheeks.

"Yeah, I got a pretty 'fun' look from your father the other day," I replied, turning to Lissa before I could see Rose's inquisitorial look. The fair girl was standing in the doorway still with a wide smile on her face, secrets hidden in her jade eyes that I knew she was just bursting to tell Rose. "I should go and let you two talk." I got up from my place on the bed, intending to go and finish off some work. I knew Rose and Lissa would want to talk for a long time, and Lissa would certainly take care of Rose while I wasn't there.

"Will you be back?" Rose asked me as I stood in the doorway. I turned back to her and smiled at her, our eyes meeting for a moment.

"Of course." Lissa sat on the side of the bed gingerly and I took that as my cue to leave, shutting th door softly behind me to give them some privacy. I still wasn't used to living in Palace housing, the corridors too ornate for my tastes. Picture frames with photos of faraway Moroi castles and family trees lined the walls, the carpet soft and plush beneath my feet. I always felt like I was dirtying the place after I came back in from work, too scared to touch anything in case I left marks. The only thing to reassure me was that the Palace was run by Lissa, so I didn't suppose she would mind as much as Tatiana would've.

I paraded the hall for a moment, and finally decided I needed some fresh air to clear my hazy head. It was so full of love that my vision was blurring, and heart ached for Roza already, even though I knew she was in good care. I began counting down the minutes until it would be acceptable to go back and sit with her again.

I sat down on a small wooden bench outside the housing, crossing my legs and observing all the people walking past. Guardians patrolled on duty, some simply shadowing their Moroi and others discussing with them whilst keeping a careful lookout. I noticed a few look in my direction, still receiving a few wary glances, and nodded at them. And as I sat, I noticed Adrian shuffling past. He glanced in my direction for just one fleeting moment, but I could see all the pain in his eyes. I immediately felt bad for him, despite the fact that he'd been my rival only days ago.

Still, I couldn't let it get to me. That was something Rose would have to deal with when she felt well enough. Which reminded me...


End file.
